KAROL SZYMANOWSKI (1882-1937)

 

Stabat Mater

 

Stabat Mater, Op. 53 (1924-26)

Veni Creator, Op. 57 (1930)

Litania do Marii Panny (Litany to the Virgin Mary), Op. 59 (1933)

Demeter, Op. 37b (1917)

Penthesilea, Op. 18 (1908)

 

Iwona Hossa - soprano

Ewa Marciniec - mezzo-soprano

Jarosław Bręk - baritone

 

Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir / Antoni Wit

 

Chorus-master: Henryk Wojnarowski

 

Karol Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater, set to a Polish translation of the medieval poem, makes extensive use of traditional Polish musical ideas. His setting of the Veni Creator was composed for the opening of the Warsaw Academy of Music, of which he was the first rector. The Litany for the Virgin Mary is a more meditative work, yet rises at times to a level of rhapsodic intensity. All the choral works on this recording are as firmly embedded in Christian musical tradition as they are recognisably of their period.

 

Naxos 8570724