This is the latest volume in Polish label DUX's 'Penderecki
Special Edition' which has produced an average of a disc a year
since 2003, nine in total to date. Three recent volumes are
reviewed here,
here,
and here,
with critical opinion ranging from lukewarm to very positive.
The six works in the DAFÔ Quartet's programme span almost
fifty years of Penderecki's career, and as such there is a bit
of the Polish master to suit all tastes, from the avant-garde
astringency of his first two Quartets - from the same period
as his renowned Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima and the
St Luke Passion - to the more recognisably traditional-sounding
works from the 1980s onwards, after he was, in his own words,
"saved from the avant-garde snare of formalism by a return to
tradition."
Those not enamoured of hardcore European modernism of the 1960s
will be thankful that Penderecki kept his first two Quartets
so short, but for the aurally courageous these imaginative,
energetic works can be very rewarding, both full of interesting,
innovative techniques and effects, virtuosic twists and turns
and more besides.
Jump forward twenty years to Der Unterbrochene Gedanke ('The
Interrupted Thought') and the difference in idiom is huge -
this sounds much more like an excerpt from a Shostakovich quartet.
That is certainly the case also with the brilliant Third Quartet,
which includes a gypsy tune that, at the same time, sounds like,
but perhaps is not, a distorted quotation of material from Shostakovich's
Cello Concerto no.1. This work is utterly tonal and lyrical,
as is the rightly much-recorded Clarinet Quartet, a shortish
but lovely work which Penderecki describes as a "dinner for
four, an intimate meeting of friends, each of whom has something
to say, but they know each other so well that none of them has
to finish".
The thrilling two-movement String Trio is more of a mixture
of Penderecki's neo-Romanticism and his early modernism, albeit
significantly toned-down, employing a language that both Shostakovich
and Bartók would have recognised.
This is DAFÔ's third solo CD, all on DUX, and all devoted
to Polish string quartets, including their first recording of
Penderecki's Second Quartet, played considerably faster there
(DUX 0374), at 5'53, than here. Neither the booklet nor the
ensemble's website explain where the name 'DAFÔ' comes
from, why the final un-Polish circumflexed 'ô' or the
capitalisation, nor whether the four instrumentalists are founder
members. The quartet will soon be celebrating its twentieth
anniversary in any case, and their ensemble playing betokens
a mutual understanding of significance. Their deep admiration
of Penderecki's music - wholly justified - is sincere and permeates
their playing, which is expressive and adept. Experienced Polish
clarinettist Arkadiusz Adamski likewise turns in a fine performance
in the Clarinet Quartet.
Congratulations also to Małgorzata Polańska, engineer
in charge of the recording for DUX - sound is outstanding in
pretty much every regard - chamber music recorded and presented
as it should be. Finally, the booklet is of good quality, both
physically and in terms of informativeness. The notes are in
Polish and English, the latter well translated from the former,
although the language register used tends unnecessarily towards
the highbrow.
Byzantion
Collected reviews and contact at reviews.gramma.co.uk
Arkadiusz Adamski (clarinet) 
