Łukaszewski Première at the Presteigne Festival
REQUIEM IN PRESTEIGNE, Wales
By David Truslove, 26 August 2014 For six days in August, George Vass – Artistic Director of the Presteigne Festival – transforms the Welsh border town of Presteigne into a cultural hub, the quiet rural idyll given an artistic and creative makeover. This year at the 32nd Festival, seven world premières could be heard within the wonderfully diverse range of musical events that also included a handful of works by Belfast-born composer Stephen McNeff – this year’s composer-in-residence. There was also a celebration of the work of composer and pianist John McCabe (to mark his seventy-fifth birthday) and a perspective of Polish music, prompted by the centenary of Andrzej Panufnik. This theme served to illustrate a trajectory of Poland’s changing musical landscape over the last fifty years and included works by Górecki, Łutosławski, Andrzej and Roxanna Panufnik, Penderecki and Paveł Łukaszewski whose Requiem received its first performance on Sunday evening.
Bringing this newly commissioned work to life were the combined forces of the Presteigne Festival Orchestra, the Joyful Company of Singers, soloists Christopher Foster and Rachel Nicholls, all expertly handled under the baton of George Vass. Paveł Łukaszewski (b. 1968) is a contemporary Polish composer drawn by a strong faith to setting sacred texts and has, as a musical conservative, an interest in “renewed tonality”. His “Requiem for the People” as he describes it, is scored for soprano and baritone soloists, mixed chorus and chamber orchestra, with eight of its ten movements headed by personal dedications, the “Sanctus” notably to John Tavener. The work’s avoidance of the “Dies Irae” and the inclusion of Psalm 23 as well as a quietly jubilant “Alleluia” points to the promise of eternal life and its consoling texts parallel Requiems by certain English composers. For many enterprising choirs and conductors it will be a welcome addition to the sacred canon, but despite a very persuasive performance, particularly from Rachel Nicholls in “Pie Jesu”, the work seemed overly long at 55 minutes.
September 2, 2014
