St Luke Passion by the famous Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki is performed today at Canterbury Cathedral by the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Polish soloists, under the composer’s baton.
The concert - the first live performance of the work in the UK since 1982 - is the main highlight of the annual contemporary music festival Sounds New which this year has the motto ‘Polish Connections’.
The programme of the event which started a week ago includes a wide selection of works of all genres and periods, by such composers as Szymanowski, Panufnik, Lutoslawski, Bacewicz, Gorecki. Szymanski and Mykietyn.
According to the Artistic Director of Sounds New, Paul Edlin, the central idea of the festival was to highlight ‘the incredible influence that Polish music has had on the world music stage. The music of Penderecki, Lutoslawski, Gorecki has changed the way in which music is written’. Krzysztof Penderecki, who is the honorary guest of Sounds New, takes part in an academic conference on Polish music since 1945 organized by the University of East Anglia. Polish musicians featured at Sounds New include the Silesian Quartet, the Camerata Silesia Singers’ Ensemble from Katowice, the soprano Olga Pasiecznik and the pianist Maciej Grzybowski.