Lorin Maazel and Penderecki

Maazel first met Krzysztof Penderecki in the 1980s, during the rehearsals for the Fourth Symphony premiere in Paris.
“Penderecki is somebody… I mean he has something to say as a composer, has the necessary technique to express it convincingly, and knows how to infuse the score with passion and significance,” says the world famous conductor Lorin Maazel and goes on to add: “Besides, he is modest and remarkably charming. And a good friend at that.”
He conducted the world premiere of Penderecki’s Symphony No. 7 “Seven Gates of Jerusalem”, which was held in 1997 during the celebrations of the 3000th anniversary of King David's conquest of Jerusalem. For eight years since 2002, he was music director of the New York Philharmonic. Together with the orchestra’s musicians, he contributed to the visit by American artists to communist North Korea, the first since the Korean War. Maazel was also the first American to conduct at the Wagner Festival in Bayreuth.
Born 83 years ago near Paris to a Dutch-Russian-Hungarian family, he made music from a very early age, first on the violin and later as a conductor – at the age of 11 he led the NBC Symphony Orchestra. He worked with many leading German orchestras, in particular the Berliner Philharmoniker, with whom he made his debut recording in 1957. In 1972-1982 he was music director at the Cleveland Orchestra, one of the world’s best orchestras.
In November 1989 Lorin Maazel conducted Penderecki’s Symphony No. 4 (Adagio), commissioned by the French Government for the bicentennial of the French Revolution. Twenty four years later, the Maestro conductor will conduct this work again with the Sinfonia Varsovia orchestra during the jubilee Krzysztof Penderecki Festival in Warsaw. The concert will take place at 7:00 pm on 18 November at the Warsaw Philharmonic Hall. The programme also includes Violin Concerto No. 2 “Metamorphosen” with soloist Julian Rachlin and Lawrence Foster conducting, as well as Sinfonietta No. 2, which will be conducted by Andres Mustonen.