Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra & Antoni Wit - Penderecki: Magnificat & Kadisz (2015)

The two works on this recording are separated by 35 years, during which time Penderecki made a decisive break with the post-war European avant-garde. In the Magnificat, chilling instrumental clusters, spectral sounds and impassioned rhetoric unite with tonality and counterpoint to deliver a work of monumental emotional power. Written to mark the 65th anniversary of the end of the Jewish ghetto in ód, Kadisz is among the most distinctive of Penderecki's later choral works in the stark contrasts between drama and sombre reflection of its individual sections.

Our magnificent catalogue of new recordings by Krzysztof Penderecki conducted by Antoni Wit guarantees massive interest in every new release, his versions of the symphonies (box set 8.505231) considered "the standard by which all others will be judged" by ClassicsToday.com.


Krzysztof Penderecki first began writing sacred music in response to religious repression in the communist Poland of his youth, and through all his stylistic evolution vehemently embracing then abandoning postwar modernism his spiritual works have retained that thrust of blazing defiance. His Magnificat dates from 1974, a crossroads between early-period astringency and the effusive neo-Romanticism he favoured from that point. It's a peculiar and gripping mix: clammy tone clusters and slithering violins cut to resounding diatonic chords and bellowing bass solos a massive sound here from Wojtek Gierlach. Antoni Wit conducts it all at full throttle The other work on the disc is Kadisz, a 2009 memorial to the decimated Jewish ghetto of ód in Poland. It s full of lush chords, triangle halos and sombre, scented choral passages. Soprano Olga Pasichnyk is ardent and lyrical in her solos; Daniel Olbrychski provides cartoonishly lurid narration. *** --Guardian, 6/5/15

Wit conducts his brilliantly accomplished choral and orchestral forces with magnificent control. Performance ***** Recording **** --BBC Music Magazine, July'15