ASQ | PENDERECKI

Not only is Atom String Quartet one of the most important Polish string quartets, but also one of the most befriended ensembles. In our shared history, there have already been artistic residency, participation in several projects, several concerts, and ideas for the future ones... several dozen! And the fruit of this collaboration is the album "Penderecki" – recorded in the space of the Szczecin Philharmonic and also released by the institution. It is a program on the borderline of musical genres: classical and avant-garde mixed with a jazz flair and musical experiment.

The ensemble reached for the music of Krzysztof Penderecki – the greatest Polish composer of our time, whom we unfortunately had to bid goodbye in March this year. Chamber and solo works for wind instruments from the Master's youthful period, which are interspersed with "Three pieces in the old style" constitute the axis of the program.

Vitalism, motion, energy are the basic features of selected works. They naturally became a pretext for further search for the quartet, which interprets Penderecki's works in a characteristic way, giving them a completely new context. On the one hand, there is respect for musical material, and on the other, courageous formal decisions that constitute the framework of improvised fragments.

Atom String Quartet was established in Warsaw in 2010, and is created by the violinists: Dawid Lubowicz and Mateusz Smoczyński, the violist – Michał Zaborski and cellist – Krzysztof Lenczowski. All of them graduated from the Fryderyk Chopin Music Academy in Warsaw (currently Warsaw Frederic Chopin University of Music). Since winning the Grand Prix of the 13th Bielska Zadymka Jazz Festival in 2011, the band constantly performs at the greatest music festivals of the world, such as: Berliner Jazztage, Jazz Baltica, Leipziger Jazztage, Cairo Jazz Festival, Katara European Jazz Festival, Festival Veranos de la Villa Madrid, Gaume Jazz Festival, Manchester Jazz Festival, Jazzycolors Festival Paris, Salzburger Festspiele, Jazz Jamboree and Solidarity of Arts. Atom String Quartet is also the first Polish group that played twice at the European jazz fair jazzahead! in Bremen (2015 and 2018).

The album "Penderecki" is already the fifth in their career – previous albums have repeatedly won the nominations to and awards of "Fryderyk".

As it was written in "JazzPress": "Penderecki" is an album that ideally equivalent output material and the intention of its author with the characteristic sound of the Atom String Quartet, fantastic improvisations and the desire to present their fresh ideas. Reaching your own music from the heights of works of a man of such measure as Penderecki requires not only courage, but above all great skills and imagination. The quartet has once again proved that they can transform into success both their own compositions and facing the works of the greatest ones.