46th International Wratislavia Cantans Festival - part 4 report

The VIII Symphony 'Songs of Transience' by Krzysztof Penderecki is a piece that - speaking about trees - talks about the relentless passage of time and the transience of human life. It is a journey through dying gardens, guided by German poets: Eichendorff, Kraus, Hesse, Goethe, Rilke, Arnim. Today at Wratislavia (Polish Catholic Cathedral, 7 PM) a rare opportunity to hear the moving Songs of Transience, performed by Iwona Hossa, Agnieszka Rehlis, Mariusz Godlewski and the Choir and Symphony Orchestra of the Wroclaw Philharmonic under the direction of Jacek Kaspszyk.

'With the desacralization of norms, customs, creativity, the desacralization of nature coincides' - said the composer during a laudation given at the University of Glasgow when receiving an honorary doctorate. 'The Faustian passion of destruction has never gone so far. For a man who has weaned himself off sacredness, nature is a dead creation, devoid of transcendental references. And not much ecological rationalism will help here. The death of trees, tropical forests, jungles is not just a biological problem. The culture that sins against the forests undermines its own reason for existence.'

It is no wonder then that Penderecki, a caring gardener, created serious, contemplative, but also sensual music. - 'I would call it shadowy music, immersed in darkness' - says Marcin Majchrowski, a music journalist from Program 2 of Polish Radio. - 'But in this work, Penderecki avoids dissonant, jarring harmonies. And I understand it perfectly, because that's the nature of trees - rather consonant, and thorny only in exceptional cases. If I were to continue these figurative comparisons, I would say that the VIII Symphony 'seen' from a distance is monumental like a pine tree, in a closer perspective it reveals individual branches (its nine basic parts), and in sound it is chamber-like, delicate and very thoughtfully conceived, like the rustling crown of a tree. The axis of the garden that Penderecki created here is Rilke's poem End of Autumn, with the deeply moving stanza: 'More and more gardens are changing completely: they turn yellow/They become yellow, slowly dying: so far have I come.'

After the symphony-cantata, after Penderecki's orchestral songs, the program of tonight's evening at Wratislavia also includes a recital by Nicholas Daniel (Polish Catholic Cathedral, 9:30 PM), an artist well known in Wroclaw, a musician who has collaborated with Wroclaw ensembles many times. He is perhaps the most outstanding oboist in the world today, for whom works were written by James MacMillan, Elliott Carter, and John Tavener.

This time, an extraordinary recital is announced, filled with works for solo oboe or English horn. Nicholas Daniel has composed the program of his concert from works created over four centuries. When I recently spoke with him and marveled at how he managed to find so much solo oboe music to fill an entire evening, he replied: - 'You will be surprised when I tell you how large my repertoire is. It's about 150 solo works! And even more, if you count the baroque pieces. So I will play music by Marin Marais, but also a piece by the contemporary Spanish composer Jorge García del Valle Méndez for oboe and tape. The program of this evening will be extremely varied. It's nothing extraordinary. After all, we often have the opportunity to listen to solo recitals of violinists or cellists. The only difference may be that my concert is shorter and lasts about an hour. I hope it will be a unique, atmospheric, late-night performance in the beautiful interior of the Wroclaw sanctuary. I must admit that I really like Wroclaw and I return there with great pleasure. It's a bit like coming home.'

Author: pm

More information at: www.wratislaviacantans.pl