While there are plenty of Vespers settings by classic composers to maintain a solemn and reflective atmosphere appropriate to the delayed gratification of Easter Sunday, few works for Holy Saturday are as engaging – or as challenging – as Krzysztof Penderecki’s “Utrenja.”
Penderecki, who emerged from the 1960s as an icon of the avant-garde, here performs a delicate balancing act. The heavy weather of tone clusters and quicksilver cacophony disperses for hurricane’s eye interludes of hypnotic tonality. The overall impression is eerie as can be, but also affectingly mysterious. It’s a ritual both time-honored and timeless.
The text is based on the Orthodox liturgy for Holy Saturday, for the lamentation for Christ’s death, and the Easter Sunday morning service commemorating the Resurrection.
The two parts were first performed separately. “The Entombment,” composed in 1970, was dedicated to Eugene Ormandy, who recorded it with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Temple University Choir; “The Resurrection,” was composed in 1971. Both parts were commissioned by West German Radio.
Audience response to the joint premiere in 1971 was tumultuous, likely as much for extramusical considerations as for the music itself. The performance took place only days after the putdown by Polish armed forces of the Gdansk shipyard riots, sparked by precipitous inflation, that resulted in 44 people killed and over 1000 injured. Polish art and politics have frequently been familiar bedfellows.
Penderecki’s “Utrenja” has long since joined his “Polish Requiem” and “St. Luke Passion” as a milestone of modern Polish music. Not music for every day, perhaps, but if you’re feeling a little adventurous, put it on and just go with it. Afterward, you can always listen to Rachmaninoff’s “Vespers,” if you want.
Petrifying Penderecki:
Reassuring Rachmaninoff:
IMAGE: “Mourning from Chomranice,” by an artist identified as the Master of Mourning, c. 1440
