In contrast to Penderecki's earlier concertos (two for viola and the Violin Concerto No. 1) with their monumental sounds and thick textures, the Viola Concerto is closer to chamber music while preserving the character of a virtuoso work. Its clear, one-movement form juxtaposes forms of contrasting tempos: Lento, Vivace, Lento, Vivo, Lento, with Vivace and Vivo, the fast movements, having a playful, scherzo-like character. Solo cadenzas which precede, among others, the two "scherzos", serve as interludes. The nostalgic main theme, which is introduced by a viola solo in piano dynamics, develops from the minor second motif and recurs in a number of variants, including inversion, but does not really reappear in its basic form.
"The development of musical phrasing strikes one with a very economical and restrained use of means, creating the impression that the composer tries to say as much as possible with the least possible number of notes and the narrowest possible range of sound pitches", writes musicologist Tadeusz Zieliński in his latest study 'Dramat instrumentalny Pendereckiego' (PWM, Kraków 2003). "The emotions, avoiding theatrical insistency, are deeply intimate, focused and intense, though naturally not free from the underlying strong, dramatic tensions … The considerable emotional charge are released in formulas which are less typical of the exuberant romantic phrasing and more akin to the more focused and logically concentrated thinking of Bach's or Bartók's. Compared to the earlier concertos, this one brings fewer local reminiscences of the avant-garde technique of young Penderecki's, though the score includes some sophisticated sound-and-colour ideas. All in all, the Concerto is work of moderation rather than any kind of exaggeration ..."
Grigorij Zhyslin has been the one to offer some excellent interpretations of the solo part of the Concerto on a number of occasions, including the 1986 Warsaw Autumn Festival, when he was accompanied by the Symphony Orchestra of the Polish Radio and Television in Katowice under Antoni Wit. Zhyslin has also made several recordings of the Concerto.
There is a chamber orchestra version of Penderecki's Viola Concerto and two transcriptions of the solo part for other instruments, cello and clarinet. These extra versions are the result of Penderecki's mode of composing, of which he says: "... even though I write for a defined instrument, I also write 'above' this instrument" ("Studio" 1993 no. 8, p. 18).
The cello transcription was made by Boris Pergamenschikov, who played this version of the Concerto in Wuppertal in 1989. The transcription for clarinet was premiered by Orit Orbach and the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra during the 1995 Colorado Music Festival, and was presented again by Dimitri Ashkenazy with Sinfonia Varsovia under Jacek Kaspszyk during the 41st Warsaw Autumn Festival in 1998.
Prepared by the Polish Music Information Center, Polish Composers' Union, March 2004.
