The event will also be a tribute to the Polish composer, who died five years ago, on March 29, 2020.
Credo is a large-scale oratorio scored for five soloists, two choirs and orchestra.
Completed in 1998 and originally conceived as a part of a mass cycle, it soon started to be performed as an independent work.
In Rome, it will be performed by the orchestra, mixed choir and boys’ choir of the Kraków Philharmonic and Polish soloists Iwona Hossa (soprano), Natalia Rubiś (mezzo-soprano), Anna Lubańska (alto), Adam Zdunikowski (tenor), and Łukasz Konieczny (bass), with Maciej Tworek on the conductor’s podium.
In a programme note for the concert, Elżbieta Penderecka, the composer’s widow, wrote: ”I remember well that day: April 2, 2005. John Paul II, the Polish Pope, dies. Poland is in shock. In a burst of emotion and driven by a sense of spiritual necessity, Krzysztof, my husband, starts writing Chaconne in memoria del Giovanni Paolo II for strings. The work, which had its premiere in September of that year, was later included in A Polish Requiem, a monumental piece that documented in sound, as it were, key events in Polish history."
In her note, Penderecka quoted from John Paul II’s Letter to Artists, dating from the pope’s pilgrimage to Poland in 1999: ”Obedient to their inspiration in creating works both worthwhile and beautiful, [the artists] not only enrich the cultural heritage of each nation and of all humanity, but they also render an exceptional social service in favour of the common good."
(mk)