We would like, even during this extraordinary situation, for the Müpa Budapest audience to still be able to encounter the world's most outstanding and thrilling artists each evening - this time in their own homes. It is precisely for this reason that we will open Müpa Budapest's virtual concert hall and auditoriums - each night at the familiar times - by providing access to a single unforgettable performance from past years.
The performance will be broadcasted on our website and YouTube channel.
This choral symphony, which Penderecki composed to commemorate the third millennium of Jerusalem, had its premiere in Israel in 1997. The libretto, which comprises extracts from psalms and the Books of Ezekiel, Isaiah, Daniel and Jeremiah, inspired the composer to a monumental work, which employs three c...horuses, a narrator and solo singers, and which is often compared to Mahler's Symphony No. 8.
Penderecki, who died last year, earned fame in the early 1960s with works that relied on radically new, unusual sounds, elicited from string instruments in unconventional ways. It soon became evident, however, that the composer did not consider stylistic extremes an end in itself, and was far more attracted to a new synthesis of avant-garde means and the tradition - it being a deep tradition composers had already forgotten about by the middle of the 20th century.
From the late 1970s, Penderecki turned to late Romantic models with great gusto, altering them and conjoining them with the achievements of 20th-century music, presenting the old expressivity in a new, individual form.
This recording was made at the concert held at Müpa Budapest on 12 October 2016.
Presented by: Müpa Budapest