Comprehension of Penderecki. Music with a Polish accent Why did everything change later
The festival for the 85th anniversary of Krzysztof Penderecki brought together dozens of musicians - instrumentalists, singers and conductors from all over the world at the National Philharmonic in Warsaw for eight days and eleven concerts. Among them were those who had long known the works of the Polish classic of modern music, and those who happened to get to know her quite recently. Next to the masters were young artists who were just embarking on the path of great art - Penderecki's music is such that it needs new performing resources, like air. It is filled with a particularly vital force when it falls into the hands of the young with their inquisitiveness, audacity, greed for recognition, thirst to look beyond the boundaries of music in order to see what the composer himself saw and comprehended. A share of naivete, not overloaded with life experience, can give unexpected sound and semantic solutions in a collision with the dense layers of the atmosphere of the works of the main Polish avant-garde artist.
One proof of Penderecki's love for young people is the newly formed Penderecki Piano Trio of three young soloists. The music of Pan Krzysztof has been played for a long time, a certain performing tradition has developed, at the same time this music is open even in its structure, it is still a long time before it turns into a monument. And the composer himself does not hide that he is only glad to listen to new bold interpretations of his masterpieces. With all the impressiveness of the jubilee figure, with a venerable professorial appearance, Krzysztof Penderecki is incredibly easy to communicate, aphoristic in dialogue, loves to joke and gives the impression of a person who retains a childish attitude to the world - he never ceases to be surprised.
According to Penderecki's works, one can study the history of Poland and the world: his legacy in most cases consists of dedications, but even if the play does not have a specific addressee, the dates of creation and music will tell about what happened. The festival showed that the music of Pan Krzysztof - especially of the early and middle periods of creativity - is still not used to, it has not acquired clichés of perception. Yes, and the compositions of later periods of creativity, with an abundance of seemingly familiar romantic intonations, sound today with an increasing number of questions. Even musicologists have not yet acquired a reliable dictionary, have not yet found stable terms to explain many of the sound discoveries, for which the composer was especially generous in the 1960s-1980s. The fate of Penderecki's compositions turned out so happily that the vast majority of their premieres went to great musicians. The first violin concerto in 1977 was dedicated to and performed by Isaac Stern, the second was written for Anne-Sophie Mutter, the second cello concerto was for Mstislav Rostropovich, and the Winter Road Concerto for horn and orchestra was written for Radovan Vlatkovich.
Before Penderecki, in the history of modern Polish music there was Witold Lutoslawski, whose style was distinguished by puzzling higher mathematics, phenomenal precision and extreme, pedantic-surgical calculation in the choice of expressive means. It was as if Chopin spoke in it, but in the conditions of the second half of the 20th century. Penderecki's music is distinguished by a completely different scale and scope: it does not have Chopin's intimacy, but there are increased requirements for performers, because "Pan Professor", as the author of "The Seven Gates of Jerusalem" is often called, is a great connoisseur of the possibilities of symphony orchestra instruments.
The programs of the evenings were put together under the careful guidance of Krzysztof's wife, Mrs. Elzbieta Penderecka, behind whom the composer is like behind a stone wall. Pani Penderecka can answer any question concerning where, when and by whom this or that work of her husband was performed. One of the evenings consisted of works from that most famous avant-garde period: the First Symphony (1973), Capriccio for violin and orchestra (1967) and the First Violin Concerto (1977) and Emanations (1958). The four works were given to four different conductors respectively, just as the Capriccio and the Concerto went to two different soloists. By the way, this principle of performance by different soloists, conductors and orchestras enriched the performing palette of both the festival and the music itself.
It was an immersion in the composer's laboratory for an intensive search for new expressive means for that time. From the violin, sounds were extracted from all possible zones - from melodic to percussion, from rattle and whistle to a heartbreaking moan. The Polish Radio National Orchestra in Katowice masterfully mastered this challenge. The composer sent violinists to extreme trials, realizing that the violin, as the main expression of human individuality, is capable of withstanding everything. The composer seemed to be looking for and, like an alchemist, finding the impossible in metamorphoses with sound, revealing the boundary states - from solid to liquid and gaseous. Polish violinist Patricia Pekutowska showed phenomenal restraint when performing the emotionally and technically over-the-top complex, wildly capricious part in the Capriccio.
At a mass in honor of Krzysztof Penderecki at St. Jan's Cathedral
The program of cantata-oratorio music included two hymns - St. Daniel and St. Wojciech, which appeared in 1997 for the 850th anniversary of Moscow and the 1000th anniversary of Gdansk, and the grandiose Credo, written in 1998. Conductor Maximiano Valdes, after performing this heavy, like the cross of Christ, composition admitted that formally, without personal getting used to the philosophy of Credo sounds, it is simply impossible to prepare this score. He called this experience "epiphania", the comprehension of the nature of God, revealed in all its fullness. Three choirs – the Warsaw Boys Choir, the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic Choir and the K. Szymanowski Philharmonic Choir in Krakow – and the Polish Radio Orchestra, together with five vocalists, not only “created a fresco on a planetary scale”, but involved the listeners with all their might in this powerful empathic experience. By the scale, in particular, of this canvas, Penderecki seemed to prove how crushed a person was, how quickly he abandoned solving complex issues of the universe in favor of comfort and pleasant little things that dulled vigilance and stopped the intensity of spiritual searches.
At this festival, even chance meetings were helpful in understanding the Penderecki phenomenon. And when, after a long, endlessly lasting "Korean" symphony, the director Agnieszka Holland suddenly appeared in the wardrobe, it instantly became clear that Penderecki is a very cinematic composer, thinking in terms of shots of various sizes, montages, "seriality" in the sense of seriality. But the concert on the maestro's birthday turned out to be the most magical and heartfelt, when at the mass dedicated to the composer's 85th birthday in the Cathedral of St. Jan, his Missa brevis was performed by the Polish chamber choir Schola Cantorum Gedanensis conducted by Jan Lukaszewski. There was so much purity, heavenly light, hope, love and radiance in her, and when the bell rang, it became clear how much this voice meant and continues to mean in the scores of the composer who meets a person at the moment of his birth, rejoices with him on holidays and escorts you on your last journey.
About the unchangeable in music
The concept of good music now means exactly the same thing that it meant before.
(K. Penderecki, composer)
No matter how accurately music expresses the spirit of its time, no matter how new, original ideas its language strives for, there is still something that it cannot part with by its very nature. This “something” is present both in its content, and in the composition, and in those features of the form that we define with the help of the phrase “musical language”. We are talking about an artistic impact that evokes a genuine aesthetic experience in the listener. Such an impact is caused by an appeal to human thoughts and feelings, to images of the surrounding world, always alive and attractive.
Any genuine music, no matter how complex it may be, never refuses what inspires it: this is a person in all his complexity, and life with its trials and joys, and nature, and much more that was the subject of interest of art in all times.
Perhaps that is why in the work of the same composer one can find very different music - from disturbing and even tragic to the brightest and most joyful. A modern composer, like a composer of any era, can still embody images of destruction in his works and at the same time create beautiful, sublime melodies.
Therefore, let us turn again to the music of Boris Tchaikovsky - this time to his Concerto for clarinet and orchestra.
Boris Tchaikovsky. Concerto for clarinet and chamber orchestra, part I
This music embodies the most important features of the composer's artistic style, his figurative world, marked by the beauty of melody, the Russian character of themes - unhurried, penetratingly lyrical. Such music returns the listener to the world of natural, living feelings and moods. It is this property of music that expresses the composer's deep belief in the moral purity of man, his natural desire for harmony and beauty, as well as the fact that traditional human values do not lose their significance even today.
From reviews of the works of B. Tchaikovsky
“Passing through his big heart the exciting artistic problems of our time, human sorrows and joys, emotional experiences, the composer was able to sincerely and deeply say the most important thing about the world around him. And perhaps it is precisely this property of his work that attracts us so much, fascinates us, makes us return to his compositions again and again” (Yu. Serov, pianist).
“It gives you the feeling that you have fallen into some kind of rich world, rich in details, how nature can be rich, how rich the seashore can be ... Even, rather, not the seashore, but simply the bank of the Russian river, the bank of the lake, overgrown reeds, on which swans or ducks swim and leaves rustle. There is some kind of happiness in music” (A. Mitta, film director).
The desire to understand the natural foundations of art is characteristic not only for music, but also for other types of artistic activity - poetry, prose, painting. In this, the artists are trying to resist such trends of the time, when the sphere of main interests is primarily practical things, such as cars or electronic devices.
What are these natural foundations?
One of the answers is given in the poem “I have returned ...” by Rasul Gamzatov.
I returned, after a hundred years,
From darkness to this earth.
He blinked when he saw the light.
I barely recognized my planet...
Suddenly I hear: the grass rustles,
Living water runs in the stream.
"I love you! .." - the words sound
And they shine, not obsolete ...
A millennium has passed.
I returned to earth again.
Everything I remember is covered
The sands of another time.
But the lights of the stars are also fading,
Knowing that soon the sun will come out.
And people - as in our days -
Fall in love and hate...
I left and came back again
Leaving eternity behind.
The world has changed to the core.
He is full of newness.
But still - winter is white.
Flowers in the meadows twinkle sleepily.
Love remains the same.
And the quarrel remained the same.
(Translated by Y. Kozlovsky)
Questions and tasks:
- How do you understand the words of the Polish composer K. Penderecki in the epigraph of this paragraph?
- Why, in your opinion, in the works of one composer you can find a variety of themes, feelings, moods? Explain your answer using the example of B. Tchaikovsky's work.
- Can you agree that the music of the Concerto for clarinet and chamber orchestra by B. Tchaikovsky inherits the best traditions of Russian music? What is it expressed in? What is the novelty of this music?
- What would happen to art if it refused to embody the human world and reflected only signs of the times, technological progress, etc.?
- What is the main idea expressed in R. Gamzatov's poem? What things does the poet consider transient and what things are unchanging?
Additional material for a music lesson on the topic - About the unchanging in music Material for conducting a music lesson according to the program of T. Naumenko and V. Aleeva, grade 9. The concept of good music now means exactly the same thing that it meant before. (K. Penderetsky, composer) No matter how accurately music expresses the spirit of its time, no matter how new, original ideas its language strives for, there is still something that it cannot part with by its very nature. This “something” is present both in its content, and in the composition, and in those features of the form that we define with the help of the phrase “musical language”. We are talking about an artistic impact that evokes a genuine aesthetic experience in the listener. Such an impact is caused by an appeal to human thoughts and feelings, to images of the surrounding world, always alive and attractive. Konstantin Bogaevsky. Rainbow Any genuine music, no matter how complex it may be, never refuses what inspires it: this is a person in all his complexity, and life with its trials and joys, and nature, and much more that was the subject of interest of art at all times. Perhaps that is why in the work of the same composer one can find very different music from disturbing and even tragic to the brightest and most joyful. A modern composer, like a composer of any era, can still embody images of destruction in his works and at the same time create beautiful, sublime melodies. Therefore, let us turn again to the music of Boris Tchaikovsky, this time to his Concerto for clarinet and orchestra. B. Tchaikovsky. Concerto for clarinet and chamber orchestra, part I This music embodies the most important features of the composer's artistic style, his figurative world, marked by the beauty of melodism, the Russian character of unhurried, soulful lyrical themes. Such music returns the listener to the world of natural, living feelings and moods. It is this property of music that expresses the composer's deep belief in the moral purity of man, his natural desire for harmony and beauty, as well as the fact that traditional human values do not lose their significance even today. Ivan Shishkin. Novgorod. Pechersky Monastery From reviews of the works of B. Tchaikovsky “Passing through his big heart the exciting artistic problems of our time, human sorrows and joys, emotional experiences, the composer was able to sincerely and deeply say the most important thing about the world around him. And perhaps it is precisely this property of his work that attracts us so much, fascinates us, makes us return to his compositions again and again” (Yu. Serov, pianist). “It gives you the feeling that you are in some kind of rich world, rich in details, how nature can be rich, how rich the seashore can be ... Even, rather, not the seashore, but simply the bank of the Russian river, the bank of the lake overgrown with reeds, on which swans or ducks swim and leaves rustle. There is some kind of happiness in music” (A. Mitta, film director). The desire to understand the natural foundations of art is characteristic not only for music, but also for other types of artistic activity - poetry, prose, painting. In this, the artists are trying to resist such trends of the time, when the sphere of main interests is primarily practical things, such as cars or electronic devices. Vladimir Makovsky. Cooking jam What are these natural bases? One of the answers is given in the poem “I have returned ...” by Rasul Gamzatov. I returned, after a hundred years, From the darkness to this land. He blinked when he saw the light. I barely recognized my planet... Suddenly I hear grass rustling, Living water runs in the stream. "I love you!.." words sound And shine, not becoming obsolete... A millennium has passed. I returned to earth again. Everything that I remembered was covered with the Sands of another time. But the lights of the stars are also fading, Knowing that soon the sun will come out. And people, as in our days, Fall in love and hate ... I left and returned again, Leaving eternity behind me. The world has changed to the core. He is full of newness. But still winter is white. Flowers in the meadows twinkle sleepily. Love remains the same. And the quarrel remained the same. (Translated by Y. Kozlovsky) Questions and tasks: How do you understand the words of the Polish composer K. Penderecki, which were put in the epigraph of this paragraph? Why, in your opinion, in the works of one composer you can find a variety of themes, feelings, moods? Explain your answer using the example of B. Tchaikovsky's work. Can you agree that the music of the Concerto for clarinet and chamber orchestra by B. Tchaikovsky inherits the best traditions of Russian music? What is it expressed in? What is the novelty of this music? What would happen to art if it refused to embody the human world and reflected only signs of the times, technological progress, etc.? What is the main idea expressed in R. Gamzatov's poem? What things does the poet consider to be transient and what things are permanent? Source http://www.musicfantasy.ru/materials/oneizmennomvmuzyke
Krzysztof Penderecki was born on November 23, 1933 in the small Polish town of Debice. The boy's musical abilities manifested themselves early, and the famous Polish composer Arthur Malyavsky began to study with him at school. After graduating from school, Krzysztof entered the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, but soon left it and began to study at the Krakow Academy of Music in the class of composer Stanislav Verkhovych. There he began to compose music.
By the end of his studies, the young composer managed to create several interesting works, three of which - "Strophes", "Emanations" and "Psalms of David" - he presented as his graduation work. These compositions of his not only earned high marks from the commission, but in 1959 they won the first three prizes in a competition announced by the Union of Polish Composers.
Already in his first works, Penderecki showed that he was not satisfied with traditional musical genres, and he began not only to violate their boundaries, but also to use non-traditional combinations of musical instruments. So, he wrote the cantata "Trenos", dedicated to the memory of the victims of the bombing of Hiroshima, for an ensemble of fifty-three stringed instruments. Among them were violins, violas, cellos and double basses.
In 1962, Penderecki received the Grand Prix at a music competition in West Germany and the right to a four-year internship at the Berlin Academy of Music. By this time, the composer had written a number of compositions for string instruments, which made his name even more famous. These are, in particular: "Polymorphia" for forty-eight violins, "Canon" for fifty-two violins and timpani, as well as major works on biblical texts - "Passion for Luke" and "Dies Ira" (Judgment Day) - oratorios in memory of the victims of Auschwitz.
Unlike avant-garde artists who use unconventional rhythms, Penderecki freely combines a wide variety of sounds, both musical and non-musical. First of all, it concerns the use of percussion instruments. They help the composer expand the boundaries and sound of traditional musical genres. Thus, his Matins became an example of an unconventional reading of the canonical text. No less significant is the composition “De nattira sonoris” (Sounds of Nature), where the composer tries to convey the charm of the night forest with the help of music.
In the late 60s, Penderecki turned to the operatic genre. His first opera - The Devil from Loudun - was written in 1968 on a real historical plot - the story of the trial of the priest Urbain Grandier, whom the monks accused of being possessed by the devil, after which the unfortunate man was put on trial and executed. This opera has passed through the stages of all the largest theaters in the world. It began to be perceived as a kind of requiem in memory of all those who died for their beliefs.
This was followed by the operas Black Mask and King Hugo. In them, Penderecki also freely combines music, vocals and dramatic action, including actors' monologues in the musical fabric of the works.
The position of the composer himself is curious, who does not consider himself to be among the avant-garde artists and says that he never broke with the musical tradition. He often performs his works as a conductor, believing that this is a necessary component of the composition. “While conducting, I try to make my music more understandable to the conductor and the musicians. Therefore, during rehearsals, I will often add something new to the score, ”he said in one interview.
In his compositions, Penderecki makes extensive use of melodies from European music. So, on the basis of traditional melodies, the opera "Paradise Lost" was written (based on the poem of the same name by J. Milton). But he never quotes them directly, but always conveys them by his own means, believing that in our time the possibilities of music are much wider and more diverse than in the past.
In addition to music, Krzysztof Penderecki is fond of botany. He spends all his free time in his garden, tending trees and growing flowers. But the music does not leave him here either. He composes it everywhere: at creative meetings, during classes with students, on numerous trips. So, for example, the melody of "Canon" - a choral suite dedicated to the tercentenary of the construction of the cathedral in Mainz - he wrote in Krakow in the cafe "Yana Michalikova". The composer himself says that most of all he likes to work not in the quiet of the office, but among people.
The success of the composer is largely due to the tireless care of him and the help of his wife Elzbieta, who relieves him of all domestic problems and at the same time performs the duties of an impresario, organizing his concerts and performances.
Filmed in honor of the composer's 80th birthday in 2013.
In the premiere documentary, one of the greatest composers of our time and conductor Krzysztof Penderecki tells in detail the history of his life and work, reveals some secrets of mastery, shares his innermost thoughts and plans for the future. The film includes rare archival footage and documents, fragments of concerts and rehearsals, as well as interviews with Andrzej Wajda, Jonny Greenwood, Janine Jansen, Julian Rachlin, Anne-Sophie Mutter and Elzbieta Penderecka.
Work on the film was carried out over a long period of time, covering a whole year of the composer's life, which viewers will "live" with him. Most of the filming took place in the country house of the composer and the unique park in Lusławice, which he created for 40 years. Most of the plants were brought by him from all over the world, many of them were smuggled. “I love trees very much, since my early childhood, and I always dreamed that one day I would have a big park. The first year I planted 30 or 40 trees, and then the bill went into hundreds. Now the park has grown to 30 hectares, and the collection of plants is very large - about 1700 species of trees and shrubs," says the composer. Penderecki is not just a collector, he is a dendrologist, and he also acts as a designer. Ultimately, it depends only on him how the park will look in 20 or 50 years.
Among other things, its park is decorated with a large labyrinth planted with bushes. And the name for the film - "Krzysztof Penderecki. The way through the labyrinth" - was not chosen by chance. It encodes a deep meaning for the composer. The labyrinth is for him a symbol of creative search: when you can’t move straight to the goal, but from a huge number of options you need to choose the only correct one and go to it by the ring road. Whatever Penderecki did (his talent extends to many artistic fields, he is the owner of a collection of fine and applied arts, the owner of a valuable library), he always acted in his own way: he never followed fashion, was not guided by someone else's opinion, but remained true to himself , their tastes and beliefs.
Music for him is the main opportunity to say his word about the world, its complexities, to find connections with the past. He always composed what he liked, and not what was accepted. In the 60s, for example, he created very avant-garde music. As the composer himself says, it was a desire to conquer himself, to conquer what he had learned and to search for something new. And in 1966, when religious music was banned, he wrote The Luke Passion. "This work," recalls Penderecki, "broke the Polish government's notion that there was no God and no sacred music in a socialist state." To date, his latest brainchild - a concert hall built in the literal sense of the word in an open field - was called by many a crazy project. But the composer speaks of him with special trepidation, because for him he became the embodiment of many years of dreams and dreams.
Penderecki delves deeply into everything that happens in his life. He does not leave his compositions at the mercy of the performers, but he takes an active part in rehearsals: "I do not leave any freedom for the performer in my works, therefore rehearsals are very important for me." Performers sometimes have a hard time, but there is a plus in such close cooperation: they get a unique opportunity to personally communicate with the composer. "He clearly knows what he wants. This is the composer to whom you can ask a question and get a completely accurate answer," violinist Janine Jansen shares her impressions of joint rehearsals with Penderecki. Collaboration Penderecki with Jonny Greenwood, guitarist of Radiohead, was even closer. Greenwood was so inspired by Penderecki's music that "in the footsteps" of two of his compositions - "Lament for the Victims of Hiroshima" and "Polymorphia" - he wanted to write music himself. While working on his work, he thought about how to bring together Penderecki's two passions - love for trees and music. And he succeeded - on a sheet of paper, Greenwood drew a leaf of a tree in a horizontal plane and superimposed an orchestral score on the branching of the leaf veins - this is how his "48 answers to Penderecki's Polymorphia" were born.
The composer's joint work with Andrzej Wajda on the film "Katyn" turned out to be extremely profound. There were personal reasons for this: Penderecki's uncle and Vaida's father were killed in Katyn. Penderecki recalls how long he nurtured this plan, which finally came true: "It was my project. I forced Vaida to take my music. And in my practice this is a unique case: as if music appeared out of nowhere, which exactly fell on the film."
The creative life of Penderecki is in full swing: rehearsals, premieres, festivals; only for writing, he measured himself 50 years old ... All this would have been impossible without his enormous internal discipline: “Every person must live and work according to some specific rules. For example, I force myself to get up very early every day, although sometimes I don’t feel like I have a work plan for tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, for a month; I don’t pause - at my age it’s no longer possible to do them, and I always had and still have more ideas than opportunities to implement them. I write music addressed to people, honest and modern, which could be performed today, and not only after my death."
Press service of the TV channel "Russia K"
