Jonny Greenwood about Penderecki

Penderecki in Memoriam

Penderecki in Memoriam Podcast is produced and hosted by Max Horowitz, Crossover Media. Created by Anna Perzanowska and Klaudia Ofwona Draber, and presented by Polish Cultural Institute New York.

Penderecki in Memoriam Podcast unveils a multifaceted portrait of Krzysztof Penderecki, with commentary from musicians, colleagues, radio programmers, and writers who lend insight and memories of Poland’s greatest modern composer. This podcast is part of Penderecki in Memoriam Worldwide project, honoring the life and legacy of the great composer. Thank you to project partners DUX, NAXOS, Ludwig van Beethoven Association, and Schott EAM for sharing Krzysztof Penderecki’s music with the world.

Jonny Greenwood is best known as the lead guitarist of the band Radiohead whom he joined whilst still at school. He started to study psychology and music at Oxford Brookes University, but only finished his first term before leaving to sign a six-album deal with EMI, and start his recording career with Radiohead. Radiohead have realized phenomenal success over the past decade, with multi-platinum album sales and an ever growing worldwide following.

Greenwood is no stranger to classical music, though. His musical interests included Messiaen and Ligeti and he started out as a viola player. He plays several other instruments too, including piano, recorder and harmonica, and has a particular love for the ondes martenot. To date Greenwood has penned a number of “classical” works: smear (two ondes martenots and ensemble), Popcorn Superhet Receiver (string orchestra), Doghouse (string trio and large orchestra), 48 Responses to Polymorphia (48 strings), Water (chamber orchestra), and Horror vacui (solo violin and 68 strings).

In 2004, Greenwood was made Composer in Residence with the BBC Concert Orchestra. The first fruit of this association was Popcorn Superhet Receiver, a BBC commission, premiered by the BBC Concert Orchestra and Robert Ziegler in April 2005. The piece was inspired by radio static and the extended, dissonant chords of Polish composer Penderecki’s Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima. Popcorn Superhet Receiver won the BBC Radio 3 Listeners’ Award at the 2006 British Composer Awards. Sections of this work were later worked into his soundtrack for the Oscar-winning Paul Thomas Anderson film There Will Be Blood (2007). Subsequent film credits include Tran Anh Hung’s Norwegian Wood, based on the novel by Haruki Murakami, Lynne Ramsay’s We Need To Talk About Kevin, psychological thriller You Were Never Really Here, and the Paul Thomas Anderson films The Master and Inherent Vice.

Track Credits: Popcorn Superhet Receiver: Pt. 1 Popcorn Superhet Receiver: Pt. 2B 48 Responses to Polymorphia: Three Oak Leaves 48 Responses to Polymorphia: Pacay Tree 48 Responses to Polymorphia: Bridge 48 Responses to Polymorphia: Baton Sparks Penderecki Polymorphia https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.557980 Threnody https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.554491 Kanon For Orchestra and Tape https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESmO1ibZbII