Penderecki Rock Star

Imagine Beethoven conducting a composition of his at an open-air concert for 50,000 rock fans? (...Wellington's Victory came close.) Penderecki is a classical composer who has flirted at times (haven't we all?) with cross-over stuff and in his about-to-be-released video bio, there he is, coalescing his sounds (more or less) with the Rockers.
He emerges untarnished.
I've just spent two days in Warsaw for his 80th birthday celebrations, listening to a vast span of his music....
chamber works, sacred music, concerti...
an astonishing number of well-wrought, inspired notes that captivate and leave their mark.
I too was privileged to take part in the festivities by conducting his Fourth Symphony,
premiered in Paris in 1989 under my direction...
a sombre, powerful, wistful, melancholy statement of great force and impact.

There were no Rock fans in the audience but they cheered as if they were.
A memorable evening it was, that Warsaw Monday, November 18.

- Lorin Maazel