A Sonic Broom
PENDERECKI + WIT
Sweep All Before Them

8.572697

Listen to an extract from Kadisz

Listen to an extract from Magnificat

Krzysztof PENDERECKI (b. 1933)
Magnificat^†

Kadisz^††
Wojtek Gierlach, Bass† • Male vocal ensemble^†
Olga Pasichnyk, Soprano^†† • Alberto Mizrahi, Tenor^††
Daniel Olbrychski, Speaker^††
Warsaw Boys’ Choir^† • Warsaw Philharmonic Choir^†
Warsaw Philharmonic Male Choir^††
Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra
Antoni Wit

The two works on this recording are separated by 35 years, during which time Penderecki made a decisive break with the post-war European avant-garde. In the Magnificat, chilling instrumental clusters, spectral sounds and impassioned rhetoric unite with tonality and counterpoint to deliver a work of monumental emotional power. Written to mark the 65th anniversary of the end of the Jewish ghetto in Łódź, Kadisz is among the most distinctive of Penderecki’s later choral works in the stark contrasts between drama and sombre reflection of its individual sections.

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Antoni Wit • Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra

About Antoni Wit

Antoni Wit, one of the most highly regarded Polish conductors, studied conducting with Henryk Czyz at the Academy of Music in Kraków. He then continued his musical studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. After winning second prize in the International Herbert von Karajan Conducting Competition in Berlin (1971), he became an assistant conductor to the patron of that competition. From 2002 to 2013 Antoni Wit was the managing and artistic director of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir. He has made over 200 records, including an acclaimed release for Naxos of the piano concertos of Prokofiev, awarded the Diapason d’Or and Grand Prix du Disque de la Nouvelle Académie du Disque. In 2012 he received a GRAMMY® Award for Penderecki’s Fonogrammi, Horn Concerto and Partita (8.572482). Antoni Wit is professor at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw.

About the
Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra

Since its first performance in 1901 under the artistic director and principal conductor, Emil Młynarski, with the world-renowned pianist, composer and future statesman Ignacy Jan Paderewski as soloist, the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra has come under the baton of such renowned conductors as Panufnik, Witold Rowicki, Bohdan Wodiczko, and Kazimierz Kord, who served until the end of the centenary celebrations in 2001. From 2002 to 2013 Antoni Wit was the managing and artistic director of the Warsaw Philharmonic – The National Orchestra and Choir of Poland, before handing over the role of artistic director to Jacek Kaspszyk in 2013. Recordings include works by Polish composers, Paderewski, Wieniawski, Karłowicz, Szymanowski, Penderecki, Lutosławski, Górecki and Kilar, and by foreign composers, with acclaimed interpretations of works by Mahler and Richard Strauss. Their releases have won many prestigious awards, including a GRAMMY® in 2012 and six other GRAMMY® nominations.