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Warsaw Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra, Antoni Wit - Krzysztof Penderecki: Magnificat; Kadisz (2015)

Posted By: Designol
Warsaw Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra, Antoni Wit - Krzysztof Penderecki: Magnificat; Kadisz (2015)

Krzysztof Penderecki - Magnificat; Kadisz (2015)
Soloists, Warsaw Boys’ Choir, Warsaw Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra, conducted by Antoni Wit

EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue&Log) ~ 241 Mb | Mp3 (CBR320) ~ 153 Mb | Scans included
Genre: Classical, Choral | Label: Naxos | # 8.572697 | Time: 01:05:10

The two works on this recording are separated by 35 years, during which time Penderecki made a decisive break with the post-war European avant-garde. In the Magnificat, chilling instrumental clusters, spectral sounds and impassioned rhetoric unite with tonality and counterpoint to deliver a work of monumental emotional power. Written to mark the 65th anniversary of the end of the Jewish ghetto in Łódź, Kadisz is among the most distinctive of Penderecki’s later choral works in the stark contrasts between drama and sombre reflection of its individual sections.

Warsaw Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra, Antoni Wit - Johannes Brahms: Choral Works (2012)

Posted By: Designol
Warsaw Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra, Antoni Wit - Johannes Brahms: Choral Works (2012)

Johannes Brahms - Choral Works (2012)
Warsaw Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra; Antoni Wit, conductor; Ewa Wolak, contralto

EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue&Log) ~ 289 Mb | Scans included | Time: 01:09:51
Genre: Classical, Choral | Label: Naxos | # 8.572694

This collection of short choral pieces by Johannes Brahms is an unusual one in present times, partly because many of the choral parts are quite demanding. For a choral club in the 19th century, however, it wouldn't have been so novel, and there are great beauties on offer here. After the fetching Ave Maria, Op. 12, the rest of the program is dense, metaphysical, and, with the partial exception of the Alto Rhapsody, Op. 53, concerned with death. There are two funeral songs, and two more about fate, and this is not the warm, humanistic Brahms of the German Requiem, Op. 45. The performances are profound and dignified, and the overall effect uncanny. The Warsaw Philharmonic Choir under choirmaster Henryk Wojnarowski has a gorgeous rich tone that is undiminished by the long lines of the music, and the Alto Rhapsody achieves real grandeur in the hands of contralto Ewa Wolak. But the real credit goes to the Warsaw Philharmonic and conductor Antoni Wit, who keep a consistent level of tension and momentum in difficult, dark material like the somber Nänie, Op. 82 (Funeral Song), a rarely performed late Brahms masterwork.