A Polish renaissance

Polish music has flowered in the twentieth century, with the emergence of artists whose international stature has been achieved by few native composers of earlier generations - Chopin and Szymanowski being foremost among them. Yet the four Poles whose story is told here - Andrzej Panufnik (1914-91), Witold Lutoslawski (1913-94), Krzystof Penderecki (b. 1933), and Henryk Gorecki (b. 1933) - are noted for their development of radically differing creative approaches, in spite of a common national background. Key elements in that background are Poland's folk and art music; the Roman Catholic ...