Penderecki : Seven Gates of Jerusalem / Krzysztof Penderecki(cond), Cracow Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Anastazja Lipert(S), etc

Kazimierz Kord led the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra in the world-premiere recording of Krzysztof Penderecki's Seventh Symphony in Vienna in 1999. Antoni Wit led the same orchestra in the first studio recording in Warsaw in 2003. Penderecki himself recorded the work in 2004 leading the Symphonic Orchestra of the Academy of Music in Krakow. This 2008 Dux release contains -- just barely -- that performance. The Seventh Symphony is a gargantuan work scored for five soloists, narrator, chorus, and orchestra that fairly explodes from the speakers in any recording, and this recording is larger and louder than either of its predecessors. The big moments, and this is a work full of big moments, have enormous impact here. Penderecki is not a great conductor in a technical sense. The strings are sometimes out of sync in fast passages, and tutti attacks and releases are not always together. But the composer does inspire the performers into giving their all for the work, and their performance has the emotionality, monumentality, and the sense of occasion it needs to succeed.