Song of Solomon in a Tiny Flat. Penderecki’s Music in the Eyes of a Rock Drummer
I love your music, Professor. You have been my greatest Authority, not only on musical matters, though I have no formal music education (but I’m a rock drummer and, as some say, a good one). Still, it has been your vision of the World, as expressed in your Music, that has determined the course of my life (I am now 66 years old). In 1975 I and my girlfriend (born in Dębica, by the way) listened to your Canticum Canticorum Salomonis from an album which I still have – and it let me see the entire Universe. The music made such a nearly historic impression on me that I can even remember in great detail how furniture was arranged in our flat at that time. From that moment on, I have followed your new works, as I still do (along with the music of Szymanowski, Mahler, Górecki, and Palestrina, but you are always the first). Your death has moved me as deeply as the death of an extremely close person, such as John Paul II or my Mother… I am praying for you. But you will always remain with me through your Music.
Mrs Penderecka, please accept my deepest respect and condolences.
PS I had the pleasure and great joy to talk to the Professor backstage at the Baltic Opera in Gdańsk after the premiere of his Ubu Rex.
Juliusz Kruszewski, once from Gdynia, now from the village of Kłączno in Cassubia