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March 29, 2020 Music loses one of its most illustrious exponents. Krzysztof Penderecki, Polish composer and conductor among the most active musicians of the second half of the twentieth century and also of this early twenty-first century, died at the age of 86. Born in Dębica in southern Poland in 1933, he graduated from the Krakow Conservatory in 1958, where he then taught to become rector in 1972. His teaching also led him to Germany and from 1972 to 1978 to Yale University.

In the first part of his activity as a composer, Penderecki worked in the avant-garde furrow, presenting his Anaklasis in 1960 at the Donaueschingen Festival. The worldwide fame of the Polish musician exploded the following year with the Trenodia for the victims of Hiroshima for 52 strings, considered one of the most influential compositions of the twentieth century.

Personal friend of Pope John Paul II, in 1979 he was invited to the Vatican to give a concert. For the pontiff, his compatriot also composed a Chaconne in 2005, inserted in the Polish Requiem (composed in the eighties). Sacred music has always had a prominent place in Penderecki's production, such as the monumental Passion according to San Luca of 1966, in the Bach tradition.

Over the years, the Polish composer has found a more original way, returning to the tonality and more traditional forms such as the symphony (he has composed eight) and the concerts for solo instrument and orchestra (they include violin, viola, cello, flute, horn and piano). There was also talk of late romanticism to classify this part of Penderecki's production.

The cinema looked with great interest at the music of the Polish composer. Polymorphia , a String Quartet and the Cello Concerto are used by William Friedkin in The Exorcist of 1973. A director attentive to contemporary music such as Stanley Kubrick uses Utrenja , The Awakening of Jacob and De Natura Sonoris n.2 in Shining of 1980 In 2006, Alfonso Cuarón made use of Trenodia for his children of men . And with the same composition as Penderecki, David Lynch accompanied the images of a nuclear explosion in an episode of the "return" of Twin Peaks in 2017.

His influence, in addition to cinema, has also extended to rock. This is testified by the appreciation always shown by Johnny Greenwood. In 2012 an album was released in which the multi-instrumentalist of Radiohead juxtaposed two of his compositions to the Trenodia and the Polymorphia of the Polish musician. Last year, Penderecki recorded his compatriot Henryk Górecki's Symphony No. 3 with the voice of Beth Gibbons of Portishead.