The legendary Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki devoted his spare time to nurturing his remarkable garden in Lusławice, Poland. Here we combine his two greatest passions – music and flora – celebrating his life, compositions and inspirations through a virtual garden, which will grow along with his legacy. Enter Penderecki’s Garden... and watch it bloom.
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Penderecki's Garden is a virtual space inviting you to explore the great Polish composer’s achievements from diverse and complementary perspectives.
Through the garden’s layout, based on Penderecki’s non-musical life achievement - Lusławice Garden, its architectural structures and vegetation - we present insight into the life of the composer alongside compositions, inspirations and poems.
We want to celebrate the story of Penderecki,
revealing who he was and building his legacy.
Enter the Garden and watch it grow.
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Stabat Mater
The Avant-Garde on the Danube
Three Pieces in Old Style: Aria
St. Luke Passion: Miserere
Kubrick’s Hot Theme
Violin Concerto No. 1
A Symphony for Trees
Polish Requiem: Agnus Dei
Polish and American Horrors
Viola Concerto
Song of Cherubim
Infidels in Lusławice
Sinfonietta No. 2
Composing the Garden
Seven Gates of Jerusalem: De profundis
Symphony No.8 ‘Songs of Transience’
The Symphony as an Ark
Kaczka pstra (The Speckled Duck)
In Pyjamas to the Park
Horn Concerto ‘Winterreise’
Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima
Anaklasis
Capriccio
Cello Concerto No. 1
Symphony No. 3: 4th movement (Passacaglia)
Paradise Lost: Adagietto
I Sinfonietta
Ciaccona in memoriam Giovanni Paolo II
A Sea of Dreams Did Breathe on Me... Songs of Reflection and Nostalgia
Rostropovich’s kisses and champagne
Poems and Chopin
Horns and sauerkraut
Brain waves and sound waves
The haunting motif of the Adagietto
The fallible Pope
Stabat Mater
Three Pieces in Old Style: Aria
St. Luke Passion: Miserere
Violin Concerto No. 1
Polish Requiem: Agnus Dei
Viola Concerto: part no. 6 (Vivo)
Song of Cherubim
Sinfonietta No.2: movement I, Notturno – Adagio
Symphony No. 7 ‘Seven Gates of Jerusalem’: De profundis
Symphony No.8 ‘Lieder der Vergänglichkeit’, Song No. 4, Bei einer Linde
The Speckled Duck
Horn Concerto ‘Winterreise’
Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima
Anaklasis
Capriccio
Cello Concerto No. 1
Symphony No. 3: 4th movement (Passacaglia)
Paradise Lost: Adagietto
I Sinfonietta: Allegro molto
Ciaccona in memoriam Giovanni Paolo II
To the Polish pine found in a garden of Chatenay
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String Quartet No. 3 ‘Leaves of an unwritten diary’
String Quartet No. 3 ‘Leaves of an unwritten diary’
Available until
The Labirynth.05
Visit one of Europe’s largest garden labyrinths and discover the music that has been concealed inside it! Penderecki planted 15000 hornbeams in accordance with a medieval design once found on a reproduction in an old book. To learn the labyrinth’s history, find four fragments of Penderecki’s work. Use the keyboard and the mouse to move around the site.
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Amazing! Please, find another spot!
Bravo! You’ve discovered all the pieces of music. Read about the history of the labyrinth and its significance to the Maestro’s output.
[My neighbours] would come to visit, looked round, and asked me what I needed those mongolias for (they meant magnolias!), why so many trees…
Mongolias and the sketches - Read more
During the Polish Radio Choir’s tour to Rome, we visited the Pope at Castel Gandolfo, and he wanted us to sing for him, very much...
The fallible Pope - Read more
Seeing a beautiful tree gives me a happy thrill, though I must say there are few species I still don’t have, I mean, of those that can grow in our climate. (...) In Lusławice we have, for instance, a Taxodium, a bald cypress from the swamps of Luisiana, where the weather is much hotter than in Italy. There is actually no chance it could grow in Poland, but it does.