Krzysztof Penderecki

condition (records/cover): NM / NM

Gatefold sleeve.

The world premiere recording. Both works were conducted by Penderecki himself, with the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus of Kraków, soloists Jadwiga Gadulanka, Ewa Podleś, Wiesław Ochman, and Andrzej Hiolski. The LP was released in 1983, at the height of martial law.

The Te Deum (1979-80) was composed in response to the election of Karol Wojtyła as Pope John Paul II in October 1978. But a celebration it is not - the opening is darkly chromatic, late Liszt in its harmonic coloring, Wagnerian in its weight. A central section reverts to the sonic mass techniques of Penderecki's earlier period; the ending arrives at a hushed C major that feels earned rather than assumed. Into the traditional Latin text Penderecki inserted a Polish hymn asking God to protect the fatherland - a gesture that, in a communist state, was unambiguous. The work acknowledges national feeling without becoming nationalist music.

The Lacrimosa (1980) was the first movement written for what would become the Polish Requiem. Commissioned by Solidarity for the unveiling of a monument at the Gdańsk Shipyard commemorating those killed in the 1970 anti-government riots, it was dedicated to Lech Wałęsa and premiered on 16 December 1980 in Gdańsk - at the moment of Solidarity's greatest hope and visibility. The Lacrimosa that begins with the low rumble of strings and rises through a soprano vocalise to full choral weight is among the most direct and affecting things Penderecki composed. Original pressing.