Penderecki: Symphony No. 7 "Seven Gates of Jerusalem" (2006)

performed by Aga Mikolaj (soprano), Boris Carmeli, Ewa Marciniec (alto), Olga Pasiecznik (soprano), Romuald Tesarowicz (bass), Wieslaw Ochman (tenor), Warsaw National Philharmonic Choir (choir, chorus), Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Antoni Wit (conductor)
composed by Krzysztof Penderecki

The most notable feature of Penderecki's Symphony No. 7, "Seven Gates of Jerusalem," is that it sounds more like an oratorio than a symphony; in fact, one movement is set for a cappella chorus. It is not surprising, then, to discover that Penderecki wrote the piece in 1996 as an oratorio in celebration of Jerusalem's third millennium and didn't decide to designate it as his Seventh Symphony until after it had been performed in Jerusalem and Warsaw the following year. The composer hadn't yet written a sixth symphony, but ... Read More

The most notable feature of Penderecki's Symphony No. 7, "Seven Gates of Jerusalem," is that it sounds more like an oratorio than a symphony; in fact, one movement is set for a cappella chorus. It is not surprising, then, to discover that Penderecki wrote the piece in 1996 as an oratorio in celebration of Jerusalem's third millennium and didn't decide to designate it as his Seventh Symphony until after it had been performed in Jerusalem and Warsaw the following year. The composer hadn't yet written a sixth symphony, but felt that the symbolic significance of the number seven, which permeates the work on many levels, mandated this numbering. (Richard Whitehouse, in Naxos' program booklet, noted that "though a 'No. 6' had been fully worked out in concept, it had not yet been written." Penderecki completed his Eighth Symphony in 2005, but at that time, the Sixth had still not appeared.)Six movements are settings of Latin texts from the Psalms and the Prophets. (It is a curious aesthetic and political... Read Less