After the composer’s death, an urn containing his ashes was temporarily deposited in St. Florian's Church in Kraków, the southern Polish city where he lived for most of his life.
The state funeral was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The March 29 ceremony will begin with a private mass at St. Florian’s Church, after which a cortege will move along the city's Royal Route, through the Main Market Square, to the National Pantheon in the crypts of the centuries-old Church of Saints Peter and Paul, a burial site for the most outstanding figures in Polish culture and science.
The religious service will be accompanied by a selection of Penderecki’s music, including De Profundis from The Seven Gates of Jerusalem, Passacaglia from the Serenade for Strings, and two sections of The Polish Requiem – Lacrimosa and Agnus Dei, performed by the Sinfonietta Cracovia ensemble, which was close to the composer’s heart, and the Warsaw Philharmonic Chorus.
Due to the war in Ukraine, the composer’s widow, Elżbieta Penderecka, cancelled earlier plans to round off the ceremony with a concert by the Sinfonia Varsovia orchestra and the famous violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, who was a close friend of Penderecki.
Meanwhile, a tribute concert called "Krzysztof Penderecki in Memoriam" has been postponed for the autumn of 2023, the 90th anniversary of the composer’s birth.
Penderecki was one of the most renowned composers of the 20th and 21st centuries. He died on March 29, 2020 in Kraków, at the age of 86.
His vast output included orchestral and vocal-instrumental compositions, choral works, four operas, and chamber pieces. His talent was brought to international attention in 1961, when his composition entitled Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima won the UNESCO International Tribune of Composers in Paris prize.
His compositions were widely used in highly acclaimed movies such as Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, and 2001: A Space Odyssey, as well as Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island.
Penderecki also developed a career as a conductor.
His long list of honours, distinctions, medals and honorary doctorates includes the Order of the White Eagle, the highest Polish state distinction, and state honours from many countries, as well as several Grammy awards.
(mk/gs)