Penderecki, Thomas Works Powerful in Midwest Premiere

Krzysztof Penderecki

Augusta Read Thomas

Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki is no stranger to Cincinnati, compositionally or otherwise.

He has guest conducted the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra several times, most recently in Dec. 2007 for the world premiere of the updated version of his 2002 Piano Concerto.   He was a favorite of former CSO music director Jesus Lopez-Cobos, and in 1970, Erich Kunzel led the CSO premiere of his “Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima.”

Earl Rivers

Also on the program was the regional premiere of American composer Augusta Read Thomas’ 2000 “Ring Out, Wild Bells, to the Wild Sky.”

Making it an almost festive occasion was the presence of members of the American Choral Directors Association, whose central division convention was held in Cincinnati Feb. 24-26.

Not only did they have a signal event to highlight their meeting, but the performance confirmed once again the excellence and enterprise of the choral studies program at CCM.  Rivers, who is director of choral studies and head of the division of ensembles and conducting at CCM, has led many outstanding programs for the school, including the regional premiere of Tan Dun’s Water Concerto (2008) and Bach’s Mass in B Minor performed with Bastian Cleve’s film about the work, “The Sound of Eternity" (also in 2008).

Thomas, who attended the concert, spent the week in residence at CCM, where she lectured, taught master classes and coached CCM ensembles and singers.  Her cantata “Ring Out Wild Bells” was commissioned by the Choral Arts Society of Washington and premiered at the Kennedy Center in 2001.  The CCM performance, she said, was only the second time she had heard the work (second performances are the hardest ones to get for composers of new music).

Lasting 15 minutes and scored for solo soprano, mixed choir, a solo octet (soprano, three mezzo-sopranos, two tenors, baritone and bass) and a full orchestra, it is a work of considerable impact.  It opened with a tubular bell stroke momentarily evoking something akin to “Carmina Burana,” then bubbled up through the chorus to a huge cluster chord.  Corbett Auditorium was riveted immediately.

Soprano Hana Park (recent winner of the Metropolitan Opera regional auditions) fielded a lustrous voice against the choruses, who kept the tintinnabulation going (no reference to Arvo Pärt intended).  Thomas’ text is drawn from Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “In Memorian A.H.H.,” a tribute to his friend Arthur Henry Hallam, and three other Tennyson poems, “The Idealist,” “This Nature Full of Hints and Mysteries” and “Crossing the Bar.”  The overall theme is universal peace.

The vocal octet provided sung and spoken interpolations from the side balconies in Corbett Auditorium.  Mallet percussion and brasses were prominent throughout, imparting lustrous color to the chromatic harmonies.  It was an inspiring and attractive work, surely deserving of yet a third performance (!).

Penderecki’s Credo, a setting of the Nicene Creed, is a 50-minute work originally meant to be part of a complete Mass setting.  The composer was so carried away by possibilities of the Credo text that he set aside the larger work and focused on the Credo, even adding other texts to it.  These, Rivers explained in remarks to the audience, serve as meditations and to “set the Credo text in relief.”

You can see why Penderecki was inspired by the Credo text, since it traverses the Trinity, incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection and every other element of the Christian faith.  It comprises seven through-composed movements, though there was a pause here before “et resurrexit” to allow the instrumentalists to re-tune.

It is a big piece, requiring triple winds, a huge brass section -- 21 players here, nine of them placed in the right balcony closest to the stage – organ, piano, celesta, timpani, percussion (lots), harp, strings and five vocal soloists.  It is emotively big, too, written in the more traditional style of Penderecki’s later works, sometimes recalling Mahler and Berlioz -- even Beethoven and Bach.

The colors summoned by Penderecki and projected by the CCM ensembles were stunning, often changing timbres rapidly, as in the opening Credo, where dark trombones and low notes on the piano impressed themselves solemnly on the ear before piano and harp lightened the texture  and a lovely oboe solo pointed toward the sublime end.

The somber tone of English horn and violas led into “Crucifixus,” where sharp, individual notes by the brasses created a lacerating effect.  The tender voices of the Children’s Choir gave a literal interpretation to the hymn “Crux fidelis” with its reference to “sweetest wood” and “sweetest iron.”  The wrenching emotions of the movement were vividly conveyed.  Soprano Kimberly Buczek gave dramatic voice to “Pangue lingua” (“Sing, O tongue the glorious battle”), as did the choirs in their repeated “My people, what have I done to thee?” (sung in Latin and Polish).  “Out of the deep I cry to you,” a chorale-like homage to Bach, and the many keening instrumental solos added further to the devastating effect.

“Et resurrexit” conjured a moment at the tomb, with its militaristic rhythms on drums and piano and men’s voices making the announcement of Christ’s resurrection.  It was as if delivered by the Roman soldiers standing guard at the tomb.  The march-like buildup that followed, with brass, timpani and tubular bell, reminded this listener of Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony. 

“I acknowledge one baptism” brought out gongs and speech-like passages in the choir.  A reference to the Easter hymn “Salve festa dies” (“Hail, festive day”) was accompanied by drums, while the final words of the Credo “the life of the world to come” and the prayer text “This is the day which the Lord has made” were alternated and intertwined to almost giddy effect by the choirs.  The children’s voices sounded “Alleluia.”  The orchestra and choirs sounded a big “Amen,” followed by a soft halo of trumpets which brought the performance to a bright and noble end.