Did Krzysztof Penderecki write the whole during one afternoon on a Baltic beach?
Stabat Mater
00:00
00:07:05
Polish Chamber Choir
Jan Łukaszewski, conductor
DUX 0694 (2010)
While listening to the complexities of Penderecki’s Stabat Mater, the listener will find it hard to believe that such a work could be composed in one day. Penderecki harmoniously combines here the principles of Renaissance counterpoint with early Baroque polychorality, Romantic emotions, and the 20th-century twelve-tone technique. Stabat Mater marks a turn to religious subjects in the composer’s output. At the same time, it is a display of his mastery and the ability to combine various styles. Stabat Mater was later incorporated into the final section of Penderecki’s Passion. Several decades later, he applied the same performing forces in his De profundis from Seven Gates of Jerusalem (1996).