The avant-garde gave one an illusion of universalism. The musical world of Stockhausen, Nono, Boulez and Cage was for us, the young — hemmed in by the aesthetics of socialist realism, then the official canon in our country — a liberation…I was quick to realise however, that this novelty, this experimentation, and formal speculation, is more destructive than constructive; I realised the Utopian quality of its Promethean tone. [Penderecki in liner notes in 2000]
After Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki (1933-2020) started as professor in Yale, he changed his avant-garde ways. His fellow avant-gardists felt betrayed, but Penderecki went more traditional and formal, for instance in his first cello concerto from 1972. This record set documents that change, coming from the radical Emanationen from 1958 to that first cello concerto from 1972.
Personally I like the fresh views of this period, but I also loathe the l’art pour l’art and iconoclastic nature of that generation. For many of the most radical compositions I ask myself why? What am I actually listening to here?