Krzysztof Penderecki, 86, Prolific Polish Composer, has Died

KRZYSZTOF PENDERECKI 
Debica, Poland, November 23, 1933—Krákow, Poland, March 29, 2020 
POLAND'S MOST DISTINGUISHED and successful composer of classical music in the twentieth century, Penderecki wrote prolifically in a variety of music forms, including symphonies, choral works, concertos, chamber music and operas. Penderecki’s four best-known operas were Die Teufel von Loudon (Hamburg State Opera, 1969); Paradise Lost (Lyric Opera of Chicago, 1978); Die Schwarze Mask (Salzburg, 1986) and Ubu Rex (Bavarian State Opera, 1991). A much-anticipated treatment of Racine’s classic French drama Phaedra, planned for Vienna State Opera in 2018–19, was canceled when Penderecki asked the company to release him from the commission. Both Die Teufel von Loudon and Die Schwarze Mask were first performed in the U.S. at Santa Fe Opera.
Penderecki’s music was complex and thorny, often dark but invariably compelling. His best-known non-operatic compositions were Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima (1960), Polymorphia (1963), the St. Luke Passion (1963-66), the Polish Requiem (1980-84, rev. 1993, 2005), Symphony No. 3 (1988–95), and the Grammy-winning Credo (2001). Penderecki also wrote concertos for violinist Anne Sophie Mutter and cellist Mstislav Rostropovich that won them Grammys in the late 1980s.
Also an admired conductor and teacher, Penderecki’s faculty associations include the Yale School of Music, where he taught composition, and the Academy of Music in Krákow.
Penderecki’s music reached millions of non-classical music fans through the use of his compositions on the soundtracks of a number of hit movies including The Shining, The Exorcist, Wild at Heart, Twin Peaks, Shutter Island and Children of Men.