London Philharmonic Orchestra - Penderecki: Horn and Violin Concertos (2020) [Hi-Res]

Recorded live at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, London, on 27 November 2013 and 14 October 2015.

“The LPO string-players vividly felt the music’s pain. They don’t write music like that anymore” - Classical Source on Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima, 14 October 2015

This is the first release of works by Krzysztof Penderecki on the LPO Label. The Orchestra has had a long relationship with Krzysztof Penderecki as both a composer and a conductor, regularly performing his works at Royal Festival Hall. February 2020 sees the Orchestra perform his Chaconne in memory of John Paul II.

The Adagio for Strings and Horn Concerto on this album, both conducted by the composer, are recordings of the UK premiere performances.

Krzysztof Penderecki wrote the Horn Concerto specifically for soloist Radovan Vlatković. The Guardian described this performance as impressive, and having a “disquieting, at times savage beauty,” while

The Telegraph called it “fantastically fluent” with “genuinely entrancing [moments].”

This is also the first release on the LPO Label featuring conductor Michał Dworzyński. He is renowned as a great champion of music by Polish composers. His interpretation of the Violin Concerto was

praised by The Guardian for capturing “the work’s fraught, tightly bound texture and the imploded lyricism of its constantly evolving melodic material.”

Violinist Barnabás Kelemen’s performance in the Violin Concerto was widely praised. Bachtrack said he “[married] brilliant virtuosity to deep expressiveness. Whether racing through leaping runs or holding eye-wateringly high notes, his tone never faltered.”

The Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima is an iconic work by Penderecki which received the UNESCO Prize in 1961. On its dedication to Hiroshima, Penderecki wrote “May this threnody

express my deep belief that the sacrifice of Hiroshima will never be forgotten and lost, and Hiroshima will become a symbol of brotherhood between people of good will.”