Keri-Lynn Wilson And The National Philharmonic Orchestra by Penderecki, Mahler, Ó (2017/2017), Seoltóir Keri-Lynn Wilson, Müpa Budapest, Budapest, Hungary

Krzysztof Penderecki: Symphony No. 2 Penderecki (1933) composed his Second in the winter of 1979–1980. Initially it was referred to as “Christmas” symphony for the quotations of Silent Night, and also because he set out to write the work on 24 December 1979. When reworking the work later, Penderecki deleted the moniker. The symphony received its world première on 1 May 1980, with Zubin Mehta conducting the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. The thirty-minute symphony consists of a single movement divided into several sections. It is a tonal work and almost surprisingly with late-Romantic harmonies, passionate and emotional melodies, often reminiscent of the idiom of Richard Wagner and Gustav Mahler. As a guest conductor, Penderecki often conducted Dmitri Shostakovich’s symphonies, hence the influence on his own works. Mahler: Symphony No. 4 in G major The first three movements of Symphony No. 4 gradually build up to the finale, incorporates its music. The text of Himmlische Leben was taken from an early 19th-century collection of Romantic folk poetry. The emotional themes of the first sonata movement return in the reprise in heightened form. The middle development section is inflated into terrifying music with natural motifs borrowed from the finale. The main part of the scherzo movement features the fiddle of the Reaper. The minor-key theme of the slow variation theme painfully responds to the storytelling of the classicising form.