Symphony No.3 - Krzysztof Penderecki

Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Antoni Wit. I - Andante con moto: 0:00 II - Allegro con brio: 3:35 III - Adagio: 14:02 IV - Passacaglia. Allegro moderato: 26:43 V - Scherzo. Vivace: 33:31 Penderecki’s Symphony No.3 was slowly composed between 1988-95. He originally wrote “Passacaglia and Rondo“ (the last two movements) in 1988. He performed it at the festival in Lucerne, already thinking in a full symphony. In 1995 he wrote the first three movements, the whole work being premiered on December 8 of that year, performed by the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by the composer. The first movement works as a brief introduction. Low strings play an insistent rhythm on one tone as the other instruments try various ascents on complementary figures. The music intensifies until culminating in a dissonant climax, but quickly recedes towards a mysterious diminuendo, as the bass rhythm gradually slows down until stopping. A contemplative coda ends the movement. The second movement opens with tympani and strings with a forceful, angular motive. A wild trumpet cadenza is followed by brass build-ups and a nervous triplet string response. Other cadenzas on winds and percussion accentuate the anxious and obsessive undercurrent. The cello section is treated as a whole to a solo cadenza, building in clever rhythmic changes that are then imitated by the dry, non-pitched percussion (roto-toms, bongos, tom-tom). The music culminates in a violent and dissonant climax. The violas and an English horn solo eventually calm this violent rhythmic agitation. A slow, enigmatic coda ends the movement. The third movement begins with a deeply lyrical and beautiful main theme, Mahlerian in its expression and contours. It passes to horn, flute and piccolo, as it unfolds in a gentle but nostalgic manner. The music suddenly builds in anxious tremolos, but then mysteriously recedes. Nevertheless, bits and pieces of imagery keep appearing in melodic fragments, melismatic figures, and subtle shifts of timbre in the sustained orchestration. The main theme reappears on piccolo and basses, as sadness and eeriness prevail. The main theme is recapitulated lyrically in the final part, buried in the final tones is one quiet tubular bell. A calm coda ends the movement. The fourth movement is a passacaglia. The bass motive is an insistent single, fatiful low D in the strings. A theme built of tritones and ninths is heard in the horns, as the brass and winds build terrifying, sustained dissonances. All of the strings join in the rhythm with the timpani. Suddenly, the rhythm ceases and a questioning solo bass trumpet cadenza is answered plaintively by the English horn. Seven cellos quietly amass a chord as the basses begin the initial motif, played now without insistence and aggression but with a sense of inevitability. The movement ends with the obsessive note D on low strings and tubular bell. The fifth movement is structured as a scherzo-rondo. It is built on the obsessive repetition of a single, primal motive. It has a spirit and form not unlike that of Beethoven’s last Scherzos, and much of the temperament of Mahler’s symphonies, or of Goya’s Caprichos. Some of its passages remind one of a witches’ Sabbath, or a danse macabre. This frenzied moto perpetuo is arrested twice, giving way to episodes which, in their sparer texture, echo a traditional trio. The first of these, is a dialogue of winds, grazioso and scherzando. The second, dominated by the dark colouring of low instruments and gestures from the tom-tom and xylophone, once again ushers in the demoniac aura of The Black Mask. A powerful, Beethovenian coda ends the symphony. Picture: “Untitled“ (1973) by the Polish painter Zdzisław Beksiński. Sources: and Unfortunately the score is not freely available.