[.ca] St. Luke Passion

to extreme for some:
Penderecki is the most significant Polish composer of his generation and one of the most inspired and prolific musicians to emerge from East Europe since the second world war. Although he outraged many with his avant-garde style, it earned him the title of "the creator of contemporary music for audiences who hate it. "St Luke Passion" would be his most moving musical masterpieces of the twentieth century by expressing the sufferings and death of Christ and at the same time the tragic experiences of our time. He was the first Polish composer to tackle a large scale symphonic work which had been scored for three solo voices, narrator, three mixed choirs, boy's choir and orchestra and draw obvious influences from Bach's "St Luke Passion. The widely spaced choir's uttering crowd noises would be one example of the emotional extremes that Penderecki would demostrate in this work and among other works...he tread a path between sacred and profane, lamentation and ecstasy and in doing so angered many critics. This disc is beautifully recorded by British engineers in Poland and will remain a powerful and moving piece.