Penderecki: Fonogrammi, Partita & Horn Concerto

Each of these six orchestral works bears the imprint of Penderecki’s greatness as a composer. Fonogrammi alternates piquant sonorities, pulsating vehemence and moments of great intimacy. Intensity accompanied by neo-Romantic elements can be heard in The Awakening of Jacob whilst Anaklasis is a stunning example of juxtaposed, multiple sound patterns. De natura sonoris I explores more improvisational, jazz-influenced areas, as does the richly orchestrated Partita. The Horn Concerto, composed in 2008, offers an evocative landscape, glacial, powerful, yet wistful. Penderecki’s orchestral works are some of the most sonically spectacular of our time. He is one of the greatest of living composers and his music appeals to those who are fascinated by his earlier, more sensational works as by his later, more neo-Romantic turns of phrase.