As a conductor, Krzysztof Penderecki is invariably associated with performances of his own music. But it was as an interpreter of other composers’ works that he first took up the baton, and most notably considered Shostakovich’s symphonies integral to his repertory. The second half of this rather fine London Philharmonic Orchestra concert consisted of the latter’s Sixth, prefaced by Penderecki’s own Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima. Both works represent musical responses to the crises of the mid 20th century.
The Threnody, written in 1960 when Penderecki was still very much a rebel avant-gardist, remains one of his greatest scores. Time hasn’t blunted its impact and its excruciating tone clusters, suggesting the pain and terror of the injured and dying, still get indelibly under your skin. Shostakovich’s Sixth, meanwhile, dates from 1939 as war loomed and the Hitler-Stalin pact kicked in. Penderecki did fine things with its opening largo, in which hints of distant military threat intrude on a mood of sullen despair. The circus finale, culminating in a tune that might have strayed from Lehár, could have done with a bit more panache.
The UK premieres of two of Penderecki’s more recent works, both written in his late, neo-Romantic style, formed the evening’s first half. The Adagio for Strings (2013) reworks the slow movement of his own Third Symphony (1995) as a sustained elegy: Shostakovich’s compositional influence is more than once apparent, though the scoring is reminiscent of Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht. The wonderful Radovan Vlatkovíc was the soloist in the 2008 Horn Concerto. Penderecki nicknamed it “Winterreise”, though it is less informed by Schubert than by memories of a childhood hunting trip with his uncle, as an achingly nostalgic passacaglia gives way to an athletic rondo. It has a disquieting, at times savage beauty, and was beautifully done.
