Jonny Greenwood, Britain's foremost exponent of art-rock, has long acknowledged his debt to the Polish avant-garde master Krzysztof Penderecki. This collaboration is the fruit of a concert in Poland last year. Penderecki's Threnody (1960) still has the power to shock, while Greenwood's Popcorn Superhet Receiver (2005) is already a modern classic. His 48 Responses is as surprising as it is original, taking the one brief moment of tonality in Penderecki's Polymorphia and developing it into a Bach-like chorale that morphs and splinters into a series of brief, hallucinatory movements.
Krzysztof Penderecki/Jonny Greenwood: Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima; Popcorn Superhet Receiver; Polymorphia; 48 Responses to Polymorphia – review
Stephen Pritchard
AUKSO Orchestra/Penderecki/Marek Mos
(Nonesuch)
(Nonesuch)
Contributor
Stephen Pritchard
Stephen Pritchard has written on classical music for most of his 45 years in journalism. He was the Observer's first readers' editor, and prior to that was a managing editor and production editor
Stephen Pritchard
The GuardianTramp
