KRZYSZTOF PENDERECKI's Polish Requiem, for four solo voices, mixed choir, and symphony orchestra, was, like most of his large compositions, written in stages over several years (1980 - 1984 - 1993). Dedicated to his country's suffering, the piece makes references to the Polish tragedies of the previous decade. Written under the difficult period of Martial Law, the Requiem was intended to "cheer people's hearts," as the composer himself put it. "Without the overall political situation, without Solidarity," he explains, "I would not have written the Requiem, even though I had long been interested in the subject. When composing the Requiem, I wanted to take a specific position, to say which side had my support." Dedications of two kinds accompany the Requiem's different parts: those that commemorate important events in the country's history and those that distinguish people whose conduct was heroic proof of their faith. Lacrimosa is dedicated to the victims of December 1970; Agnus Dei to Cardinal Wyszynski; the first and the second parts of Dies Irae to the Warsaw Uprising and to Polish resistance against Nazi Germany, and to Saint Maksymilian Kolbe; and Libera me, Domine commemorates the victims of Katyn. Polish Requiem (without Sanctus, which would not be composed until 1993) was premiered in Stuttgart by Mstislav Rostropovich, the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, Württemberg City Opera Choir, and Süddeutsche Rundfunk Choir on September 24, 1984.

The first performance of Krzysztof Penderecki's Agnus Dei from Polish Requiem performed by 8 cellos was given on 3 October 2007 on the occasion of the memorial service for Mstislav Rostropovich in St. John's Church in Kronberg (Germany). Professors and students of the Kronberg Academy Cello Festivals performed under the direction of Frans Helmerson.

Pärt:

Arvo Pärt was born in 1935 in Paide, Estonia. After composition studies in Tallinn, he worked as a sound engineer for Estonian Radio. In 1980 he emigrated with his family to Vienna and then, a year later, traveled on a scholarship to Berlin, where he has lived ever since.

As one of the most radical representatives of the so-called “Soviet Avant-garde,” Pärt's work passed through a profound evolutionary process. His first creative period began with neo-classical piano music. Then followed ten years in which he made his own individual use of the most important compositional techniques of the avant-garde: twelve tone, sound masses, aleatoricism, collage technique. Nekrolog (1960), the first piece of twelve tone music written in Estonia, and Perpetuum Mobile (1963) gained the composer his first recognition by the West. In his collage works, “avant-garde” and “early” music confront each other boldly and irreconcilably, a confrontation which attains its most extreme expression in the piece Credo (1968). But by this time all the compositional devices Pärt had employed to date had lost their former fascination and begun to seem pointless to him. The search for his own voice drove him into a withdrawal from creative work lasting nearly eight years, during which he engaged in the study of Gregorian chant and classical vocal polyphony.

In 1976 music emerged from this silence—the little piano piece Für Alina. It is obvious that with this work Pärt had discovered his own path. The new compositional principle used here for the first time, which he called “tintinnabuli” (Latin for 'little bells'), has defined his work right up to today. The “tintinnabuli” principle does not strive towards a progressive increase in complexity, but on the contrary, towards an extreme reduction of sound materials and a limitation to the essential.

O-Antiphonen, or Great Antiphons belong to the particular liturgical form of Advent. An antiphon is a response, usually sung in Gregorian chant, to a psalm or some other part of a religious service, such as at Vespers or at a Mass. This meaning gave rise to the antiphony, “call and response,“ style of singing. Antiphons are an integral part of the worship in both the Eastern Orthodox and Greek Orthodox churches. These are the seven Magnificat-Antiphonen from the week before Christmas, which date back to the oldest time. Jesus is called out for with seven titles that the Messiah was given in the Old Testament, followed by a begging plea for His coming. These seven O-Antiphonen were set to music by Arvo Pärt in 1988 for a capella choir with the title Sieben Magnificat Antiphonen.

Both Cello Octet Amsterdam and Arvo Pärt shared the wish to work together for years. Pärt's idea of removing the text from the Sieben Magnificat Antiphonen and putting them in the hands of a cello ensemble offered the possibility to finally realize this long cherished wish. Cello Octet Amsterdam gave the world premiere of the work in October 2008 the presence of maestro Pärt himself.

In the words of the composer, it was “the unique sound of Cello Octet Amsterdam, that is on the one hand so rich in overtones and on the other hand holds an inexhaustible potential for cantabile playing, that inspired me to write O-Antiphonen and make these literal 'Songs Without Words' possible.”

This commission was made possible thanks to the support from Amsterdam’s Fonds voor de Kunst and the Amsterdam Cello Biënnale.

Hans:

Olga Hans is a Polish composer. She studied at the Academy of Music in Łódź, receiving diplomas with distinction in music theory and composition in 1995 and 1997. Currently she is a member of faculty of the Łódź Academy. She is a prizewinner of several composition competitions. Her compositions have been performed at numerous festivals in Poland, they have also been performed in Holland, Spain and Great Britain. She is a member of the Polish Composers’ Union.

Her principal works include five string quartets, Fantazja for guitar solo, Close to the Scent of Jazz for brass, Cantus for orchestra, Violin concerto, Sun Songs for 7 cellos, Elegia for violin and orchestra, Da suonare a tre for piano trio, Litany for mixed choir, Sonata for cello solo, Locus solus for cello octet, Thyrsos for brass and percussion, Three Old Polish Psalms for mixed choir, Miniature for cello and piano, Nocturns for piano trio Elegiac preludes for flute and string quartet (2007), Cello concerto for right hand, and Recitativo e arioso for viola or cello solo.

Pieśni słoneczne (Sun Songs) for 7 cellos was composed in 1999 and premiered in Łódź in 2000. It is in a free rhapsodic form developing in three major sections, the first and last slow and melodious, preceded by the introduction of the cello solo, and the middle, fast and ferocious. Although it is not a programmatic work, Pieśni słoneczne’s title, character and melodic material bring to mind a pagan hymn to the Sun.

Riley:



California Composer Terry Riley launched what is now known as the Minimalist movement with his revolutionary classic "IN C" in 1964. This seminal work provided a new concept in musical form based on interlocking repetitive patterns. Its impact was to change the course of 20th century music and its influence has been heard in the works of composers such as Steve Reich, Philip Glass and John Adams and in the music of rock groups such as The Who, The Soft Machine, Tangerine Dream, Curved Air and many others. Riley's hypnotic, multi-layered, polymetric, brightly orchestrated eastern flavored improvisations and compositions set the stage for the prevailing interest in a New Tonality.

Terry Riley writes of ArchAngels:

“The Queen of Dark Waters and Protection Vigil were written during a period of serious preoccupation with the sinister aggressive and war and profit driven direction taken by the government of the country in which I live, the USA. During the build up to the unjust and vicious war of aggression by the US and Britain against the peoples of Iraq I conceived of the idea of protection vigils (a kind of prayer through music, if you will) as a way of calling on help from the spirit world (angels) to shelter the innocent victims of war. One of these vigils was held from dusk to dawn in Nevada City, California, with scores of performers all contributing their particular approach to this idea. I also formed a vigil band to perform protection and peace vigils before the unjust war on Iraq. These two works were not written as a form of entertainment but as a way to bring us together through music in an atmosphere of reflection and a common desire for peace and protection for all precious life.
In scoring ArchAngels I decided on a radical approach to the tuning of the open strings of the ensemble. Normally, for cello, they are tuned from the bottom string to the top, c-g-d-a. While keeping this relationship I transposed the fundamental tone to four other degrees of the scale, which gives the complete chromatic scale in open, strings. This should give a deep and darkly resonant sound quite different from that given if all the cellos were in the normal tuning. ArchAngels was commissioned by the festival of Cuenca, Spain and written especially for the marvelous Cello Octet Conjunto Ibérico (Amsterdam Cello Octet) ensemble.
In the spirit of Peace, Terry Riley, Assisi, Italy, 21 February 2004”

Halffter:

Spanish composer Cristóbal Halffter (born March 24, 1930 in Madrid) is the nephew of two other composers, Rodolfo and Ernesto Halffter. In 1936, his family moved to Germany to escape the Spanish Civil War, but they returned to Madrid in 1939, and Halftter studied at the German School there, graduating in 1951. In 1955, he was appointed conductor of the Falla orchestra. He forged a successful career as composer and conductor, writing music which combined traditional Spanish elements with avant-garde techniques. His Piano Concerto won the National Music Prize in 1953. In 1961 he became Professor of Composition at the Royal Conservatory of Madrid.

Halffter composed a large number of chamber music works and symphonies including Elegía la muerte de tres poetas españoles, Oficio de difuntos and Versus. A number of his works have been composed for soloists such as his cello concerto for violoncello (premiered by Rostropovich, the double concerto for violin and viola and the concerto for piano).

Santiago Soler (1729-1783) is credited as the author of a well-known Fandango for clavichord on which this work is based, but probably the actual composer was Padre Basilio, an excellent but modest guitarist. Halffter calls it “a masterpiece in all aspects, but especially in the way the element of popular dance mixes with the two compass ostinato which can be heard throughout the composition and the impressive technical mastery of the composer.”

The Fandango served as inspiration for two compositions: the Preludio Madrid, written to celebrate Madrid’s selection as the capital of Europe in 1992, and the Fandango for eight cellos, intended to pay homage to well loved cellists including Gaspar Cassadó, Mstislav Rostropovich, Boris Pergamenschikov and Heinrich Schiff. A work of unusual instrumental complexity, it was first performed in Stuttgart on September 29, 1989. The Amsterdam Cello Octet, then called Conjunto Ibérico, played the piece in the presence of the composer in Madrid in1991, and ever then it has become one of the Octet’s greatest hits, with over two hundred performances.