557766 bk Penderecki US 16/8/06 15:24 Page 5 Verdi’s Requiem at the Salle Pleyel in Paris. He has appeared in Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar’s Bride at the Rome Opera, throughout Europe. In December 2001 the choir, together with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, performed for John Boris Godunov and Rigoletto at the Paris Opéra, Verdi’s Luisa Miller and Aida in Lyon, The Story of Tsar Saltan at Milan’s Paul II once again in a special concert commemorating the centenary of the Warsaw Philharmonic, this time presenting the La Scala, and in Nabucco before the audiences of Toulouse, Marseille, Orange and many other French cities. Since its Missa pro pace by Wojciech Kilar. Among the conductors who have performed with the Warsaw Philharmonic Choir have PENDERECKI opening in 1989 he has appeared at the Paris Opéra Bastille, with Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini, Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of been Witold Rowicki, Jerzy Semkow, Kazimierz Kord, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Krzysztof Penderecki, Stanislaw Spades, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Verdi’s Otello, and Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro. In Poland he has sung at the Grand Skrowaczewski, Leopold Stokowski, Gary Bertini, Sergiu Comissiona, Lorin Maazel, Seiji Ozawa, Giuseppe Sinopoli and Theatre in Warsaw and the Silesian Opera in Bytom. His extensive repertoire includes oratorios by Bach, Handel and Igor Stravinsky and, of course, Antoni Wit who is the Artistic Director of the Warsaw Philharmonic, the National Orchestra Symphony No. 7 Haydn as well as songs by Polish, French, Russian and German composers. He has collaborated with Krzysztof Penderecki and Choir of Poland. in performances of the latter’s Requiem, Te Deum and St Luke Passion. Romuald Tesarowicz has won many prizes, including second prize at the Adam Didur National Opera Competition, the Gold Medal and Roncorogni Prize at the Voci Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra: The National Philharmonic of Poland ‘Seven Gates of Jerusalem’ Verdiane vocal competition in Busseto, the Grand Prix and the audience award at the 21st Moniuszko Festival in Kudowa Zdrój, and second prize at the opera competition in Barcelona. He has recorded extensively for radio and television in The first performance of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra took place on 5th November 1901 in the newly opened Pasichnyk • Mikol/aj • Marciniec • Ochman • Tesarowicz • Carmeli Europe and America. Philharmonic Hall under the artistic director and principal conductor, Emil Ml/ynarski. The soloist was the world-renowned pianist, composer and future statesman Ignacy Jan Paderewski, and the programme included Paderewski’s Piano Concerto Warsaw National Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra Boris Carmeli in A minor and works of other Polish composers, Chopin, Moniuszko, Noskowski, Stojowski and Zelen˙ski. In the succeeding years the orchestra won a high reputation, collaborating with leading conductors and soloists, until the outbreak One of the truly outstanding performers in the international music world today, Boris Carmeli studied in Milan and Rome, of war in 1939, the destruction of the Philharmonic Hall and the loss of 39 of its 71 players. Resuming activity after the war, Antoni Wit and was discovered by Tullio Serafin, who first brought him to La Scala in Milan. With a repertoire of over seventy operas the orchestra was conducted by Straszy´ski and Panufnik, and in January 1950 Witold Rowicki was appointed director and and sixty oratorios, his credits are as distinguished as they are lengthy. He has appeared regularly in the major opera houses principal conductor, organizing a new ensemble under difficult conditions. In 1955 the rebuilt Philharmonic Hall was re- in the world, such as La Scala in Milan, Rome, Florence, Venice, Naples, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Madrid, opened, with a large hall of over a thousand seats and a 433-seat hall for chamber music, recognised as the National Tokyo, Osaka, Rio de Janeiro, and is a sought-after participant for international festivals such as those of Salzburg, Holland, Philharmonic of Poland. Subsequent conductors included Bohdan Wodiczko, Arnold Rezler and Stanislaw the Berliner Festwochen, Wiener Festwochen, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Sacra Musicale Umbra in Perugia, and Aix-en- Skrowaczewski, and in 1958 Witold Rowicki was again appointed artistic director and principal conductor, a post he held Provence, among others. He has performed with virtually all the leading conductors of our day, including Karajan, Giulini, until 1977, when he was succeeded by Kazimierz Kord, who served until the end of the centenary celebrations in 2001. In Mehta, Bertini, Bernstein, Ahronovitch, Celibidache, Albrecht, Caridis, Ceccato, Muti, Maazel, Sawallisch, Kubelik, 2002 Antoni Wit became general and artistic director of the Warsaw Philharmonic – The National Orchestra and Choir of Scherchen, Barbirolli, Menuhin, Dorati, Ansermet, Markevitch, Prêtre, Semkow, Richter, Penderecki, Jochum, Poland. The orchestra has toured widely abroad, in addition to its busy schedule at home in symphony concerts, chamber Skrowaczewski, Rostropovich, Chailly, Dutoit, Maga, Zagrosek, Zinman, Macal, Frühbeck de Burgos, and Kord. Boris concerts, educational work and other activities. It now has a complement of 112 players. Carmeli frequently appears on Italian television and has starred in many opera films, including Puccini’s Turandot with Birgit Nilsson at La Scala, The Life of Puccini and Rossini’s La scala di Seta. He sang in the European première of Antoni Wit Penderecki’s Paradise Lost under the direction of the composer at La Scala in Milan and at the Vatican for the Pope. Antoni Wit, one of the most highly regarded Polish conductors, studied conducting with Henryk Czyz and composition Warsaw National Philharmonic Choir with Krzysztof Penderecki at the Academy of Music in Cracow, subsequently continuing his studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. He also graduated in law at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. Immediately after completing his studies he was The Warsaw National Philharmonic Choir was founded in 1952 by Zbigniew Soja and gave its first concert in May 1953, engaged as an assistant at the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra by Witold Rowicki and was later appointed conductor of the under the then artistic director of the Warsaw Philharmonic Witold Rowicki. The present chorus-master Henryk Poznan Philharmonic, collaborated with the Warsaw Grand Theatre, and from 1964 to 1977 was artistic director of the Wojnarowski has held this position since 1978. In its wide repertoire the choir has more than 150 oratorios and choral works Pomeranian Philharmonic, before his appointment as director of the Polish Radio and Television Orchestra and Chorus in ranging from the medieval to the contemporary. Each year the choir collaborates in some ten symphony and oratorio Cracow. From 1983 to 2000 he was the director of the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice, and from concerts with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the most important part of its artistic activity. The choir also performs 1987 to 1994 he was the chief conductor and then first guest conductor of the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria. In regularly at the Warsaw Autumn Festival and in Wrocl/aw at the Wratislavia Cantans Festival. Many of these concerts have 2002 he became General and Artistic Director of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. His international career has brought been recorded. Polish music, in particular works of Krzysztof Penderecki, Henryk Mikolaj Górecki and Wojciech Kilar, is engagements with major orchestras throughout Europe, the Americas and the Near and Far East. He has made nearly a a very important part of the choir’s repertoire. The choir has performed all Penderecki’s oratorios and a cappella works, as hundred records, including an acclaimed release for Naxos of the piano concertos of Prokofiev [8.550565-66], awarded the well as his opera Paradise Lost. The Warsaw Philharmonic Choir is also very active internationally, appearing throughout Diapason d’Or and Grand Prix du Disque de la Nouvelle Académie du Disque. In January 2002 his recording of the Europe and beyond. There have been collaborations with the most renowned orchestras, and participation in operas at La Turangalîla Symphony by Olivier Messiaen [8.554478-79] was awarded the Cannes Classical Award in Midem Classic Scala, Milan, La Fenice, and in other major houses. In 1988 and 1990 the choir was invited to the Vatican to take part in 2002. Antoni Wit is a professor at the F. Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw. celebrations of the successive anniversaries of Pope John Paul II’s pontificate, concerts that were televised and broadcast 8.557766 5 6 8.557766 557766 bk Penderecki US 16/8/06 15:24 Page 2 Krzysztof Penderecki (b. 1933) lines from Psalm 48 in a mood of powerful supplication. like interlude, before the pace slackens as chamber choir Aga Mikol/aj Symphony No. 7 ‘Seven Gates of Jerusalem’ The soloists respond with an expressive counterpoint of and soloists enter in a mood of sustained elegy. An lines from Psalm 96, with sonorous interlude for brass arresting passage now for strings with bells, followed by Aga Mikol/aj was born in the Polish town of Kutno and studied in Poznan and at the Vienna Hochschule für Musik Surprising though it might now seem, the appearance in Symphony (1992) [Naxos 8.554567]. All three works and lower strings. The chorus effects a return to the keening solos for piccolo, horn and flute, before chorus und Darstellende Kunst, participating in master-classes with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Renata Scotto. She won a 1962 of the Stabat Mater by Krzysztof Penderecki typify the stylistic plurality that Penderecki has pursued opening music, and then the movement ends on a note and soloists resume their elegiac manner. Brass and special award at the Ada Sari Competition in Nowy Sacz in 1995, the audience prize and Handel award at the 41st caused a furore within avant-garde music circles. in the last quarter-century; the influence of of speculative uncertainty.