Pretty gloomy stuff, these three works by Polish post-modernist composer
Krzysztof Penderecki are also pretty small beer. Of course,
Penderecki has always been gloomy -- any composer whose signature work is the Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima of 1959 is going to tend toward the dark side. But since he stopped writing in the style of his the Threnody,
Penderecki's searing atonality and "sheets of sound scoring have settled into stodgy chromaticism and stolid string writing. For diehard fans of post-Modernism, it's as if
Boulez had reverted to
Debussy or
Stockhausen reverted to
Brahms. But even those with an interest in
Penderecki's later style may not be altogether persuaded by the works included here. The earliest, a chamber orchestra-sized rescoring of the originally choral Agnus Dei from 1981, sounds like a slowed-down and enormously simplified Adagio by
Bruckner. The next, the Flute Concerto dedicated to
Jean-Pierre Rampal from 1992, sounds like a leaner, meaner but nowhere near as interesting Flute Concerto by
Nielsen. The most recent, a 1997 arrangement for clarinet and orchestra of the Viola Concerto from 1983, sounds like a harder, hasher but thankfully nowhere near as despairing Clarinet Concerto by Pettersson. Both soloists -- clarinetist
Dmitri Ashkenazy and flutist David Aguilar -- are brilliant virtuosos and clearly deeply dedicated interpreters of these works. The
Sinfonia Varsovia gives everything it has to the composer on the podium, who in turn gives everything he has to the music. Whether it works or not is up to the listener. Dux's sound is clean and clear enough, but like the music, it lacks warmth.