Warsaw festival to celebrate composer Penderecki

The event will be a birthday tribute to the composer, who turns 85 on November 23.

At a press conference unveiling the programme of the festival, Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister and Culture Minister Piotr Gliński said that Polish culture would be incomplete without Penderecki, who many say is one of the world’s greatest living composers.

Penderecki told reporters: ”I am an exceptionally happy man. My music is performed and respected in my homeland. What else can one expect?”

The eight-day festival, which is due to open on November 16, includes seven symphonic concerts and three concerts of chamber music giving a cross-section of Penderecki’s creative path, from the avant-garde experiments of the 1960s to works penned in recent years.

Featured soloists and orchestras will include world-famous violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, cellist Ivan Monighetti, the Shanghai Quartet, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Sinfonia Varsovia under prominent conductors such as Alexander Liebreich, Leonard Slatkin and Christoph Eschenbach.

Penderecki’s vast output includes symphonic and chamber music, concertos, large-scale vocal-instrumental works and operas.

His long list of honours, distinctions, medals and honorary doctorates includes the Order of the White Eagle, the highest Polish state distinction, and state honours from Germany, Austria, France and Monaco, in addition to several Grammy awards.

(mk/gs)