St. Luke Passion

Krzysztof Penderecki’s St. Luke Passion will conclude the 15th Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival. On 22 April at the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Sinfonia Varsovia orchestra will join forces with the Warsaw Philharmonic Choir, the Choir of the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic in Białystok, the National Academic Choir of Ukraine “Dumka", the Warsaw Boys Choir and the soloists Iwona Hossa (soprano), Thomas Bauer (baritone), Tomasz Konieczny (bass) and Krzysztof Gosztyła (narrator). The concert will be conducted by the composer Krzysztof Penderecki.
“When he decided to compose his Passion, Krzysztof Penderecki was little more than thirty. The preceding five years had established him in the fore of the new avant-garde. He had already achieved an international success with Threnody and a spectacular triumph of his subsequent scores, those marked by their radical sonorism. And it is at that moment that he had the courage to leave the field of his own victory. He decided to employ the conquered extreme means of expression for a higher end than for their own sake. At the same time, he had the courage to face two other challenges. He was the first of the composers from the part of the world ruled by the communists to dare approach a religious subject. And he was the first composer of the 20th century to relate to a historical genre with its ideal model in St. Matthew Passion,” writes Mieczysław Tomaszewski in the Festival catalogue.
“Krzysztof Penderecki composed Passion for the 700th anniversary of Münster Cathedral, where it was first performed in 1966. Almost at once, it created a vivid and ceaseless resonance, naturally and finally entering the list of unquestioned musical masterpieces of our time.”