For Krzysztof Penderecki’s ancestors, winter was the hunting season.
Horn Concerto ‘Winterreise’
00:00
00:18:12
Kateřina Javůrková, horn
Polish Orchestra Sinfonia Iuventus
Krzysztof Penderecki, conductor
DUX 1274 (2015)
Penderecki retained the memory of hunting for hares and boars in the woods where his great grandfather had once been the forester. These recollections were revived when he was given the opportunity to write a concerto for horn virtuoso Radovan Vlatković – possibly because the horn has always been associated with hunting in music history. This one-part composition combines extreme states, as in the opening passacaglia and the lively allegro; it also brings many thoughtful and elegiac moods, as befits a proper story. This concerto, early Romantic in spirit, also abounds in numerous dialogues between the horn and instruments of the orchestra.