Krzysztof Penderecki

condition (records/cover): NM / NM

A Philips compilation from 1974 that gathers four works from the decade 1960-71, spanning the full arc of Krzysztof Penderecki's sonoristic period. The pairing is significant: Anaklasis (1960) and Fluorescences (1962) represent the initial breakthrough years, when Penderecki's cluster-based string writing and graphic notation first made the international new music world pay attention; De Natura Sonoris No.2 (1971) and Kosmogonia (1970) close the period, the latter commissioned by the United Nations for its twenty-fifth anniversary and scored for a huge ensemble including soprano, tenor, baritone and mixed chorus - text assembled from Copernicus, Seneca, and the text of the Apollo 8 astronauts' Christmas broadcast from lunar orbit in 1968. A year into the future, The Awakening of Jacob (1974) would signal the change of direction. This LP captures Penderecki at the culmination of the first phase, before the turn. Original Philips pressing, 1974.