Penderecki: Miserere

• Main performer: Netherlands Chamber Choir
• Booklet languages: English, French, German
• Libretto languages: Latin, English
• Time: 47:07
• Release Date: 2004

Review

As documents of his Catholic faith, Krzysztof Penderecki's choral works are orthodox, though perhaps only as far as his settings of traditional texts are reverent and not distorted theologically. Musically, though, Penderecki is far from traditional, and his clustered chromatic harmonies, staggered divisi parts, and chiaroscuro textures have become established features of modernist choral writing; and his choral masterpiece, the St. Luke Passion (1966), has become an avant-garde classic. The choral works on this 2004 Globe release, composed between 1962 and 1996, show Penderecki's methods in shorter forms, and with some signs of renewed interest in modes and tonality. Penderecki's music has not become quite as conservative as Pärt's or Tavener's, but his mature language is flexible enough to include triads, as in the Benedictus (1992); extended sections in keys, as in the Song of Cherubim (1987) and De Profundis (1996); and even unison drones, as in the Veni Creator (1989). But the Stabat Mater (1962) and the Miserere (1966) display the familiar, experimental Penderecki sound, and are still as effective in conveying intense religious feeling as the more accessible later works. The a cappella Netherlands Chamber Choir, conducted by Tõnu Kaljuste, is evenly blended and expressive, and wonderfully resonant in the Old Catholic Church of The Hague. Globe's engineering is clean and well-balanced. ~ Blair Sanderson, Rovi

Performances

Composer	Title	Time
Krzysztof Penderecki	Miserere, for chorus	47:07

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