Penderecki: Te Deum

Since 1966, with the composition of the St Luke Passion (Naxos 8.557149), Penderecki has enjoyed an international reputation for music that blends direct, emotional appeal with contemporary compositional techniques. The neo-Romantic choral work, Te Deum, was inspired by the anointing of Karol Wojtyla as the first Polish Pope in 1978. Although Penderecki’s recent choral works have tended to be similarly monumental in scale, he has written several of a more compact nature, such as Hymne an den heiligen Daniel, whose opening ranks as one of the composer’s most affecting. This disc closes with two works for strings: the experimental Polymorphia from 1961, and the expressive Chaconne, written in 2005 as a tribute to the late Pope John Paul II.