PENDERECKI: St. Luke Passion – Izabella Klosinska, soprano; Adam
Kruszewsi, baritone/Warsaw Boys Choir and Philharmonic Choir/Warsaw
National Philharmonic Orchestra/Antoni Wit. Naxos 8.557149, 76:24
***1/2:
Jarring. Ominous. Chordal,
discordant, mellifluous, melismatic, microtonal. Pious. Doubt-racked.
Doleful. Portentous. Scary. Dramatic, didactic, climactic. Macabre.
Threatening. Jolting. Pleading, whining, evasive. Complaining and
proclaiming. Decrescendo, diminuendo. Eruptive! Percussive, rumbling,
grumbling. Tense. Vibrant. Vociferous. Clashing. Banging. Clattering.
Resonant. Soft. Melodic. Crackling, cackling, hissing, echoic. Buzzing,
humming, twittering, thumping. Daunting, quiet, high and
low-registered, abrupt, vigorous, gaudy, tacky, and wordy. Gilded and
guilt-ridden. Grave, elegant, effervescent. Well-intentioned.
Long-winded. Busy, choppy, fragmentary. Bewildering. Purgative,
punitive, penitent. Aleatory? Hallucinatory. Laudatory. Sycophantic,
cathartic, cathectic, Catholic. Uncritical, uncomforting, unrelenting.
Kruszewsi, baritone/Warsaw Boys Choir and Philharmonic Choir/Warsaw
National Philharmonic Orchestra/Antoni Wit. Naxos 8.557149, 76:24
***1/2:
Jarring. Ominous. Chordal,
discordant, mellifluous, melismatic, microtonal. Pious. Doubt-racked.
Doleful. Portentous. Scary. Dramatic, didactic, climactic. Macabre.
Threatening. Jolting. Pleading, whining, evasive. Complaining and
proclaiming. Decrescendo, diminuendo. Eruptive! Percussive, rumbling,
grumbling. Tense. Vibrant. Vociferous. Clashing. Banging. Clattering.
Resonant. Soft. Melodic. Crackling, cackling, hissing, echoic. Buzzing,
humming, twittering, thumping. Daunting, quiet, high and
low-registered, abrupt, vigorous, gaudy, tacky, and wordy. Gilded and
guilt-ridden. Grave, elegant, effervescent. Well-intentioned.
Long-winded. Busy, choppy, fragmentary. Bewildering. Purgative,
punitive, penitent. Aleatory? Hallucinatory. Laudatory. Sycophantic,
cathartic, cathectic, Catholic. Uncritical, uncomforting, unrelenting.
Treacherous. Confused. Intricate. Mocking. Regretful, remorseful,
inaccessible, intractable, inspirational. Simple. Saved and forsaken.
Bureaucratic, stubborn, fixated, sentimental, arch. Shocking. Calm.
Soothing. Religious. Hysterical! Well-engineered. Well-conducted.
Well-constructed. Fragmentary. Mythical. Glorious, celestial,
earthbound, hidebound. Twelfth & twentieth century. Cramped and
cavernous. Contained and sprawling. Ordinary and bizarre. Serene and
distressed. Compact and diffuse. Torn and assembled. Lush and lean.
Scrawny and buxom. Ugly. Harsh. Intense. Unforgettable. Graphic.
Abrasive. Violent. Beastly, beaten, beatific. Beautiful.
