Krzysztof Penderecki first began writing sacred music in response to religious repression in the communist Poland of his youth, and through all his stylistic evolution – vehemently embracing then abandoning postwar modernism – his spiritual works have retained that thrust of blazing defiance. His Magnificat dates from 1974, a crossroads between early-period astringency and the effusive neo-Romanticism he favoured from that point. It’s a peculiar and gripping mix: clammy tone clusters and slithering violins cut to resounding diatonic chords and bellowing bass solos – a massive sound here from Wojtek Gierlach. Antoni Wit conducts it all at full throttle, but the orchestra sounds more incisive than the choir, which is unfocused and a little stretched at the top.
The other work on the disc is Kadisz, a 2009 memorial to the decimated Jewish ghetto of Łódź in Poland. It’s full of lush chords, triangle halos and sombre, scented choral passages. Soprano Olga Pasichnyk is ardent and lyrical in her solos; Daniel Olbrychski provides cartoonishly lurid narration.
