This disc brings together some of Penderecki’s least-known works.
Covering the whole of his stylistic range – from saucy pastiche to more hard edged radical writing – this recording vividly captures Penderecki’s growth and change as a composer.
“Though none of the pieces on this disc counts among his major works, it adds up to an attractive portrait of the composer...[the Sinfoniettas] inhabit a sound-world suggesting Shostakovich, but without its bleak pessimism. Conductor Antoni Wit sculpts the Warsaw Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra's playing, and two wind soloists shape every line with purpose.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2012 ****
“there's plenty of fervent intensity in the way Antoni Wit and the Warsaw Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra put the music across” Gramophone Magazine, June 2012
“The performances here are really fine throughout: Antoni Wit is an exceptional conductor who has made some outstanding recordings (not just of Polish music) with this admirable orchestra, and the recording quality is first-rate.” International Record Review, June 2012
“This collection of works for string orchestra swings effortlessly from courtly baroque pastiche to radical avant garde...Here was a leading enfant terrible producing stately minuets, played with elegant warmth by the Warsaw Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra in the latest of Antoni Wit's excellent Penderecki series for Naxos...All elements combine in the closing, elegiac Sinfonietta No 2” The Observer, 12th February 2012
