Polish composer's masterpieces tour China

Works by Krzysztof Penderecki performed with German violinist Mutter

In 1995, Polish composer and conductor Krzysztof Penderecki finished his Violin Concerto No 2 Metamorphosen, 18 years after Violin Concerto No 1.

Penderecki, who started working on the score in 1992, dedicated it to his friend, German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, who premiered it that year with the London Symphony Orchestra.

The score was also featured in the album Penderecki: Violin Concerto No 2 Metamorphosen by German classical music record label Deutsche Grammophon in 1998. It won two Grammy Awards that year, for best instrumental soloist performance (with orchestra) and best classical contemporary composition.

German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter has embarked on a China tour with the Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra to mark the 85th birthday of Polish composer and conductor Krzysztof Penderecki (below). Photos Provided to China Daily

"Few composers have demonstrated so many different colors and contradictions through their compositions," Mutter said recently in Beijing. "For me, this work is a physical and psychological challenge that requires my best technical skills yet gives me tremendous musical fulfillment."

To mark Penderecki's 85th birthday, which falls on Nov 23, and in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Poland regaining its independence, Mutter played Violin Concerto No 2 Metamorphosen alongside the Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra under the baton of Polish conductor Maciej Tworek at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing on Oct 17.

The performance also marked the start of the violinist's China tour with the orchestra.

Penderecki, who was also in Beijing, joined the tour. He will be conducting the Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra, performing Antonin Dvorak's Symphony No 7.

"There is humanity in his music, not just technique. His music makes us more human," Mutter says. "Playing his pieces brings much more meaning to my life."

Besides Violin Concerto No 2 Metamorphosen, Mutter will also play Penderecki's La Follia for the solo violin during the ongoing China tour. She premiered the piece in 2013 at Carnegie Hall in New York.

Penderecki, hailed as Poland's greatest living composer by The Guardian, recalls that he was impressed by Mutter's performance decades ago when she was a 14-year-old performing Mozart's Violin Concerto No 5 in A Major under the baton of conductor Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic. He has since been following the violinist's concerts and composing music works for her.

Deutsche Grammophon released a double album titled Hommage a Penderecki in August, which showcases several of Penderecki's works for violin and piano, or violin and orchestra. All of them feature Mutter.

Since his first visit to China more than 20 years ago, Penderecki has visited the country almost every year. In 2002, he was the conductor for the China Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra when it premiered his Symphony No 3 at the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing. In 2016, he conducted the Beethoven Festival Orchestra in the Great Hall of the People.

"It has become a tradition for me to come to China. I have seen the audiences' enthusiasm for music, which cannot be compared to any other country," Penderecki says.

After studying composition under Franciszek Skolyszewski and later at the Krakow Academy of Music under Artur Malawski and Stanislaw Wiechowicz, Penderecki composed Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima in 1959, which is one of his best-known compositions. In the past six decades, Penderecki has composed more than 100 instrumental works, including 20 chamber works, 17 solo works and seven symphonies.

Besides music, the composer is also interested in gardening.

Wray Armstrong, chairman of Armstrong Music and Arts - the organizer of Mutter's ongoing China tour with Sinfonia Varsovia - can attest to this. He notes that he once visited Penderecki's home in Luslawice in southern Poland and was impressed by the garden the composer designed himself.

"There are more than 1,800 species of trees in the garden and two labyrinths," says Penderecki's wife, Elzbieta Penderecka. "It's one of the largest private collections in Central Europe."

Penderecki notes: "I became involved in planting trees many years ago, and this is my life and my love. I like walking through the trees and looking at them growing. It's the greatest joy in my life, even more than music."

chennan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 10/26/2018 page19)