Kilar: Angelus / Exodus / Krzesany

I discovered Kilar through his score for Dracula, surely one of the greatest soundtracks of the last decade. His powerful combination of repetitive motifs and transparent but lush scoring is well-represented in these orchestral and choral works from the 70s and 80s. I defy anyone to find any piece of music more spine-tingling and mesmerising than Angelus - although memories of Carpathian castles occasionally come to the surface, this music reaches new levels of spiritual intensity somewhat more genuine then those encountered in his soundtrack work. Exodus could be described as a spell-binding eastern European bolero with shades of Gorecki and even Khachaturian - utterly hypnotic and magisterial. Enough said - if you were enraptured by the Dracula score, you MUST investigate this CD - the best money I have spent in months...

I first heard this cd in HMV, i was immediately enchanted. I then heard it on the listening post and felt transported to a gothic and mysterious eastern european cathedral - it is both beautiful and full of very dramatic catholic intensity. A fantastic soprano, very powerful spititual chanting that is frankly scary and heavily abstract orchestral arrangements are all something quite bizarre and completely different to anything i have really ever heard. I would highly recommend this as a very interesting set of works that showcases Kilar's immense talent, much more abstract than the Dracula score, but more original and unique experience. The best way i can compare it, is to say that it is like taking a medievel polish religious fresco or painting and overlaying part of a Picasso outline - bizarre but truly an amazing experience....

I was only going to award four stars for this recording but had admit to myself that I'd enjoyed it far too much for that. I wanted to knock a star off because I felt a little guilty enjoying it so much. There's plenty that you could criticise, or that sounds bizarre in this set, but it's still great fun.

I first became acquainted with Kilar's work many years ago, as a student, from a recording by Witold Rowicki of Krzrsany. It was a very bright recording and I felt the same then as I do now about Krzrsany. Apart from being unpronouncable, it's huge dissonant contrasts and thumping dance rhythms seemed bizarre but I loved it all the same.

Seeing this newer recording I had no choice but to snap it up. If only out of nostalgia's sake. This new version With the Polish National Radio Orchestra, choir and soloists under Antoni Wit is every as good as the original recording with better sound and a group of works that offer a contrast to Krzrsany. These other, mainly, choral works, show a close affinity to Henryk Gorecki but with a greater sense of theatre and drama. They perhaps lack the sense of intense integrity of his work but add some film like theatricality. It is no accident that Kilar has made a good living out of composing for the cinema.

Angelus does indeed include some rather gothic chant mixed with more conventional religious writing. The spoken chant in unison that flanks the music is both disorientating and effective with the introduction of the timpani then orchestra, followed by the soprano soaring above them all: magical. The rest, however, lives very obviously in the shadow of Gorecki's Beatus Vir but meanders rather too much to hold the interest or reach the ecstatic heights of the Gorecki.

Exodus is probably the work with most instant obvious appeal, as described by others as an East European Bolero. I'd say it is closer to the opening movement of Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony and I suspect that Kilar consciously used that as the model. Where it differs from Bolero can be summed up as follows: Firstly; the theme is much shorter than Bolero; secondly, the orchestral accompaniement seems quite descriptive in Hollywood epic kind of way, depicting the Jews exodus from Egypt; thirdly, it's a march not a Bolero, though it breaks into a Bolero near the choral climax. After the crunching climaxes the fourth, most obvious difference, is the introduction of the chorus. The music then marches triumphantly to its conclusion. Ironically, this triumphal march could as easily depict protestant or communist marching songs: it sounds like "Onward Christian Red Army soldiers" - I feel a touch uncomfortable with it. That said, the incongruous mix doesn't outstay its welcome.

Krzrsany is not an obviously religious work and I think its title means, "climbing a mountain". Any Poles reading, please forgive me if that's wrong. The music is full of huge crags and big dissonances as well as hummable folk tunes and furious, frenetic dancing. It delights in shock and contrast. The fact that it is built largely on huge tone clusters shows a link, again, to Gorecki but this is Gorecki having a mad fit. The climax provides both the folk song and more dancing that adds layer upon layer of increasingly free aleatoric writing. This, apparently, is an attempt to depict a polish clog dance where the steal tips of the clogs set off sparks. If that's so the Kilar's depiction feels spot on.

After the apparent attempted piety of the other works this is the one to let your hair down to. All the works are highly evocative but the piety doesn't run so deep: this is the work of a composer who's talents are for the dramatic and theatrical. Best to enjoy these works on a surface level. Not the work of a great composer, perhaps, but highly enjoyable and recommended with good sound, committed and fine performances.