PENDERECKI Symphony No. 7

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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. percussion, the latter suitably augmented, bring back the International Competition at s’Hertogenbosch, the Polish media prize for young artists in 1998 and second prize and Coming after such radical orchestral works as Threnody Shostakovich, whose symphonies Penderecki has often The second movement is a brief but plangent setting music from the opening, which drives through to its Verdi award at the 1999 Alfredo Kraus Competition in Las Palmas. Guest engagements have taken her to major for the Victims of Hiroshima (1961) and Fluorescences conducted, being an especially potent force. for the second soprano, chorus and orchestra of words headlong and dramatic climax. opera houses throughout Europe, with recitals and concerts also in America. Since 2002 she has been a member of (1962) [both Naxos 8.554491], its stark simplicity and Jerusalem is a city of special significance for from Psalm 137, and which features pulsating strings At its apex, the sixth movement crashes in: a setting the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. emotional directness led, not for the last time in his Penderecki, who first visited it during the aftermath of and timpani as a Pendereckian fingerprint. The third (in Hebrew) for speaker and orchestra of verses from the career, to accusations of having turned his back on the ‘Yom Kippur’ War in 1974. In 1995 he was movement sets the opening verses from Psalm 130 (the Book of Ezekiel, strings, brass and percussion adding a Ewa Marciniec musical progress. Worth remembering, though, is commissioned for a work to celebrate the city’s third famous De profundis) for unaccompanied chorus in a powerfully evocative commentary, and a solo for bass Penderecki’s stance, as a progressive composer in the millennium, and so opted for an oratorio entitled Seven finely-wrought polyphony, one that unites aspects of trumpet to represent the ‘voice of God’. Again without Ewa Marciniec studied in Poland and abroad at the Stuttgart Musikhochschule and in master-courses elsewhere, winning conformist environment of post-Stalinist Poland, and Gates of Jerusalem (according to Jewish tradition, the ancient and modern in a way wholly typical of the pause, the seventh movement commences. Baleful prizes at home and abroad. She has appeared as a soloist in a wide range of music, ranging from Bach and Handel to also as a devout Catholic in a nominally atheist society. eighth ‘golden’ gate remains closed in anticipation of composer. The fourth movement then opens with an choral settings of verses from the Books of Jeremiah and Penderecki. Her operatic career has taken her to major theatres in Germany and Italy, and to leading international festivals, The Stabat Mater was among the first open expressions the Messiah’s arrival). Written from April to December assertive orchestral gesture, intensified by the use of Daniel are followed by no less intense settings for the and she has collaborated with a number of leading conductors and distinguished colleagues. of faith in Poland since the Second World War, and of 1996, it had its première in Jerusalem on 9th January non-tuned percussion and also string glissandi, chorus soloists of verses from Isaiah. The movement presently Penderecki did not hesitate to incorporate it into a more 1997, the orchestra comprising members of the and soprano adding to the impassioned mood with takes on a summative quality, as verses from Psalms 48 Wiesl/aw Ochman comprehensive expression when the opportunity arose Jerusalem Symphony and Bavarian Radio Symphony verses from Psalm 137 and the Book of Isaiah. and 96 set earlier in the piece are recalled in an even in 1964: the Passio et mors Domini nostri Iesu Christi Orchestras, conducted by Lorin Maazel. The Polish The fifth movement functions rather as an extended more intense manner. The music now proceeds to a Since the times of Jan Kiepura, Wiesl/aw Ochman has been the first truly world-famous Polish tenor. Born in Warsaw in secundum Lucam, or St Luke Passion [Naxos 8.557149], première, conducted by Kazimierz Kord, took place in scherzo within the overall formal scheme. Brass and climactic apotheosis, briefly touching on a more muted 1937, he first had the ambition to become a painter, before turning instead to vocal studies. In 1960 he joined the Silesian being the outcome. Moreover, its diversity of techniques Warsaw on 14th March. Only then did Penderecki percussion set off urgently, to which the chorus adds an and sombre note, before the triumphal final cadence. State Opera and for three seasons undertook a number of major parts there, while continuing his vocal training with Maria was to prove a paradigm for choral works he has since decide on calling the piece his Seventh Symphony, so ominous, even menacing touch with its setting of verses Szl/apak. In the autumn of 1963 he moved to the opera house in Kraków, but a year later returned to his home city of composed, Dies Irae (1967), Kosmogonia (1970), reflecting the fact that, though a ‘No. 6’ had been fully from Psalm 147. Strings and wind then have a fugato- Richard Whitehouse Warsaw, where the Teatr Wielki was about to be reopened after rebuilding. His performance as Jontek in Moniuszko’s Utrenja (1971), Magnificat (1974), Te Deum (1979), worked out in concept, it had not yet been written. No. 7 Halka, together with three other productions for the 1965 grand opening of the theatre, became the turning-point in his Polish Requiem (1984) [8.557149], Credo (1998) and is thus a choral symphony (Penderecki has since career. In the same season he also won success singing the title rôle in Faust. This resulted in an invitation to the Berlin State Seven Gates of Jerusalem (1996). composed another, his Eighth Symphony being a setting Opera, where he sang the part of Turiddu in Cavalleria rusticana in January 1967, followed by appearances in Munich and This latter work might well be viewed as the of German poets entitled Lieder der Vergänglichkeit), Hamburg. At Glyndebourne he sang Lensky in Eugene Onegin, then Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, appeared in Salzburg and, coming together of the choral and symphonic facets scored for five soloists, speaker, three mixed choirs and something hitherto unheard of for a Polish tenor, gained international fame as an excellent interpreter of Mozart. In across Penderecki’s output. The First Symphony (1973) also a large orchestra that includes such unusual particular he became a much sought-after performer for the rôle of Ottavio in Don Giovanni, and the title-role in Idomeneo. [Naxos 8.554567] marks the true culmination of his instruments as the bass trumpet and the tubaphone. In 1972 he appeared at the Paris Opéra, and in the United States, making his début at the Metropolitan Opera in New York involvement with the ‘avant-garde’ experimental Although it is in no sense a descriptive, let alone Olga Pasichnyk (Pasiecznik) in 1975 as Arrigo in Verdi’s I vespri siciliani, and going on later to appear there in Eugene Onegin, Boris Godunov and techniques that had brought him to prominence at the pictorial work, the Seventh Symphony is yet pervaded by Khovanshchina. Meanwhile in 1982 he had made his début at La Scala, Milan, under Claudio Abbado. The recipient of outset of the 1960s. By contrast, the Second ‘Christmas’ the number ‘seven’ at various levels. Apart from its Born in Ukraine, Olga Pasichnyk studied the piano and musical pedagogy in her native Rivne, and voice at the Kiev various official awards in Poland, Wiesl/aw Ochman has an extensive repertoire both in opera and in oratorio. He has the Symphony (1980) [Naxos 8.554492] is a product of the having seven movements, the role of seven-note phrases Conservatory and, as a postgraduate, at the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw. In 1992 she became a soloist of the largest number of recordings to his credit among all the Polish singers, both from the present and from earlier generations. neo-Romantic idiom that the composer evolved during in the binding together of the work’s thematic content is Warsaw Chamber Opera, singing with success major rôles in operas by Monteverdi, Handel, Mozart, Rossini, Verdi, the mid-1970s, music that is monumental in its impact an extensive one, while the frequent presence of seven Puccini, Debussy, Tchaikovsky, and by contemporary composers in most of the countries of Europe, in the United States, Romuald Tesarowicz yet also inward in its expression. The large-scale Third notes repeated at a single pitch will be evident even on a Canada and Japan. She has performed at numerous concerts and international music festivals in major concert halls and Symphony (1995) [Naxos 8.554491] had a protracted first hearing, as also the seven fortissimo chords theatres throughout Europe, appearing with leading orchestras and conductors. Olga Pasichnyk won second prize in the The outstanding Polish bass Romuald Tesarowicz is a soloist of the Paris Opéra, the Teatro alla Scala and the Rome Opera. gestation, during which period, the single-movement bringing the seventh and final movement to an end. International Vocal Competition in s’Hertogenbosch in 1994, and in the 1999 Mirjam Helin International Singing He made his début as Skol/uba in Stanisl/aw Moniuszko’s The Haunted Manor, and in 1983 joined the Wielki Theatre in ‘Adagio’ that is the Fourth Symphony (1989) [Naxos The first movement starts with glowering chords on Competition in Helsinki, with further awards at the Belgian Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition in 2000, /LódÏ, where he sang leading bass parts in Boito’s Mefistofele, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, Donizetti’s Lucia di 8.554492] had come into being, as had the Fifth brass and percussion, against which the chorus intones when she was also awarded the Special Oratorio Prize and Public Prize. She has recorded more than thirty CDs. Lammermoor, Halévy’s La Juive, Wagner’s Die Walküre and Verdi’s Don Carlos. In 1986 he performed at the opening of the Teatro Vittorio Emanuele in Messina, singing in Eugene Onegin and Lucia di Lammermoor. A year later he sang in 8.557766 23 8.557766 4 8.557766 557766 bk Penderecki US 16/8/06 15:24 Page 2

Seven Gates of Jerusalem 2 Si oblitus fuero tui, Jerusalem 2:44 Seven Gates of Jerusalem 3 De profundis 6:56 4 Si oblitus fuero tui, Jerusalem 5:22 5 Lauda Jerusalem 17:14 6 Facta es super me manus Domini 5:34 Naxos Rights International Ltd. www.naxos.com Made in Canada Booklet notes in English 7 Haec dicit Dominus 11:36 & Olga Pasichnyk, Soprano • Aga Mikol/aj, Soprano 2006 Ewa Marciniec, Alto • Wiesl/aw Ochman, Tenor Romuald Tesarowicz, Bass • Boris Carmeli, Narrator Warsaw National Philharmonic Choir (Henryk Wojnarowski, choirmaster) Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra • Antoni Wit This recording was made possible thanks to a grant from the Polish Ministry of Culture Sung texts are available at www.naxos.com/libretti/sevengates.htm 8.557766 Recorded from 18th to 20th November, 2003, at Warsaw Philharmonic Hall, Poland 8.557766 Producers, Engineers, Editors: Andrzej Sasin and Aleksandra Nagórko Publisher: Schott Musik • Booklet notes: Richard Whitehouse Cover image: Gates of Tour, study for the New Jerusalem by Aristarkh Vasilievic Lentulov (1882-1943) (Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia / The Bridgeman Art Library)