Krzysztof Penderecki - Complete Cello Concertos (Arto Noras)

Information

Composer: Krzysztof Penderecki

• Concerto for Cello and Orchestra No. 1
• Concerto for Cello and Orchestra No. 2
• Concerto for Viola and Chamber Orchestra

Arto Noras, cello
Sinfonia Varsovia
Krzysztof Penderecki, conductor

Date: 2001/2003
Label: Finlandia/Elatus

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Review

Stylish performances of two of Penderecki’s most dramatic and satisfying concertos

Arto Noras is a vigorous‚ stylish cello soloist in all three of the works listed here‚ though only one – the Concerto No 2 – was originally designed for that instrument. The composition described as ‘Cello Concerto No 1’ began life as a work for five-­stringed violin (a violin with a viola extension)‚ while – according to the booklet – there are at least six versions of the Viola Concerto‚ including the option of playing the original viola part on the cello. Penderecki’s music‚ fortunately‚ is a good deal less complicated than all this implies‚ and the Concerto No 2‚ completed in 1982 and first performed by Rostropovich‚ is one of the more satisfying demonstrations of his later‚ unashamedly Romantic style. At 35 minutes it is too long‚ especially in a final section which gets more firmly stuck in a single groove the more determinedly it tries to move on. But it maintains a strong dramatic profile‚ and the obsessive focus on limited materials – with strong echoes of the main theme of Lutoslawski’s Funeral Music (1954­58) – is effectively offset by occasional reminders of the denser harmonies and more explosive moods of Penderecki’s youthful radicalism. That early style is given full rein in the First Concerto‚ an enjoyably spooky and hectic exploration of extremes‚ one moment icily remote‚ the next erupting in volcanic petulance. It’s exhilarating music‚ in which sound­ effects matter more than themes‚ but nevertheless far preferable to the routine‚ repetitive thematic processes of the Viola Concerto‚ written a year or so after the Second Cello Concerto and based‚ it appears‚ on very similar material‚ even though little more than half the length. Noras dispatches both these shorter works in the same strongly sculpted manner that serves the Second Concerto so well‚ and the recordings – with the composer doubling as an efficient conductor – are resonant but well defined.

-- Gramophone

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Krzysztof Penderecki (23 November 1933 – 29 March 2020) is a Polish composer and conductor. He studied music at Jagiellonian University and the Academy of Music in Kraków. Penderecki has composed four operas, eight symphonies and other orchestral pieces, a variety of instrumental concertos, choral settings of mainly religious texts, as well as chamber and instrumental works. Among his best known works are Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima, Symphony No. 3, his St. Luke Passion, Polish Requiem, Anaklasis and Utrenja. In 2012, The Guardian called him the Poland's greatest living composer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krzysztof_Penderecki
http://www.krzysztofpenderecki.eu/en/

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Arto Noras (born 12 May 1942, in Turku) is a Finnish cellist who is one of Finland's most celebrated instrumentalists and amongst the most outstanding internationally acknowledged cellists of his generation. He studied with Yrjö Selin at the Sibelius Academy, and with Paul Tortelier at the Paris Conservatoire. In 1966, he was awarded second prize in the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Noras' repertoire covers all the principal works that have been written for his instrument, including those by contemporary composers, and he has recorded them extensively for the Finlandia recording label.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arto_Noras

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