"Listening to classical music is like reading philosophy books", says Krzysztof Penderecki. In the summer of 2015 he is recording his oratory works with the Warsaw Philharmonic, the National Orchestra, and the Choir of Poland.

It is hard to believe that this is your first time recording with the Warsaw Philharmonic National Orchestra. In the past they performed under your baton several times, the orchestra even recorded some of your pieces, but you never recorded them together.

Krzysztof Penderecki: It is peculiar indeed. I have recorded with orchestras all around the world and never with the National Orchestra. It just happened this way. Recently, under the direction of Antoni Wit, the orchestra has been recording quite a lot of my works, especially the oratory ones. I believe it is a good time to record now. I would like these vocal-instrumental pieces to be a memento of my own work. It is very important to me.

Are you discovering these pieces anew while working on them now? Can they surprise you in any way?

These pieces are always in my repertoire. However, every time you work with a different choir, a different orchestra, the music sounds different. I think it is a good thing that this recording takes on a different dimension.

There is no room for brave improvisation, but the piece can just be performed badly, without rhythm or emotion. I am trying to record it the way I hear it. Each conductor has their own way of doing this. I have my own sound imagination, but also my own timing.

For me, the most important element is the form, and it must be correct. I start a music piece with the form. Not the theme, but a graphic sketch of the whole piece, and only then do I fill in the blanks.

So you know from the start how the music will develop and end?

Yes. It reminds me of the situation when I bought land in Lutosławice. There were some trees here and there. Therefore, I first drew a sketch of the park with trees that I imagined would be there. It took some time to plant those trees, it is 30 hectares of land. 20 years, maybe more, and it is still an open book. But the form, landscape, architecture, it worked.