Jonny Greenwood's concerts with Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki have been awarded a 'Coryphaeus of Polish Music 2012' at the annual awards of the Polish music community.

Jonny Greenwood (L) and Krzysztof Penderecki: photo - press materials

Composers Wojciech Kilar and Zygmunt Krauze were also warded prizes at a gala concert at Polish Radio’s Lutosławski Studio in Warsaw.

The concert by Poland’s Krzysztof Penderecki and Britain’s Jonny Greenwood at last year’s European Congress of Culture in Wrocław was named ‘Event of the Year’.

The concert featured two of Penderecki’s early different pieces - ‘Polymorphia’ and ‘Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima’ – and Greenwood's ‘48 Responses to Polymorphia’ and ‘Popcorn Superhet Receiver’.

Earlier this year, the concert was repeated at London’s Barbican Centre and the four works were recorded for the Nonesuch label. The Coryphaeus of Polish Music Awards were launched last year by the Institute of Music and Dance.

Seventy four year-old Zygmunt Krauze, who won the Personality of the Year title, is among the household names in Polish avant-garde music, with a long list of orchestral and chamber works, as well as operas to his credit.

He has also developed a career as a pianist. His compositions have been featured at some of the world’s most prestigious festivals and recorded on such labels as Nonesuch and EMI.

The composer’s latest opera ‘Polieukt’, with a libretto after Pierre Corneille, received an award from the French Critics’ Association last year.

Wojciech Kilar, who received the Honorary Coryphaeus Award, had his 80th birthday last July.

One of the founders of the Polish school of avant-garde music in the early 1960s, in the 1970s he turned to tradition and looked for inspiration in folk music and religion.

The folk music of the Tatras inspired him in such works as Kościelec 1909, Grey Mist, Orawa and, first and foremost, Krzesany, his most popular orchestral piece, performed with much success all over the world.

Kilar has also written soundtracks to over 100 films, including those by Francis F.Coppola (Bram Stoker’s Dracula), Jane Campion (The Portrait of a Lady), Roman Polański (Death and the Maiden, The Pianist) as well as Krzysztof Kieślowski, Andrzej Wajda and Krzysztof Zanussi. (mk/pg)

source: IAR