It was with some relief that I read Jonny Greenwood describe himself as an “old fashioned modernist composer” prior to attending this performance of two of his pieces for string orchestra. The Radiohead guitarist has made no secret of his admiration for the once pioneering Polish composer of the '60s classical avant-garde Krzysztof Penderecki and Greenwood’s two scores performed that evening were accompanied by the two Penderecki pieces which directly influenced them: the exhilarating Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima and Polymorphia. Such admiration, bordering on infatuation, with this music of fifty years prior, had suggested to me something of a tragic image of Greenwood; like a pop band hoping to produce a trailblazing new work by copying the innovations of Sgt. Pepper’s, in taking cues from this outmoded style any attempts to add something of value to the classical music canon would be doomed from the word go. Greenwood’s admission, then, betrayed an endearing self-awareness that I had worried had been absent from his forays into classical composition, understanding the position of his music more as a tribute to a specific time and sound than as a body of work of any real musical significance.
To completely disregard Greenwood’s classical output, however, would be unfair and the first of his two pieces performed, 2004’s Popcorn Superhet Receiver, puts forward a strong case for the relevance of his music. The twenty-minute piece - a response to Penderecki’s Threnody - represents one of Greenwood’s first attempts at writing for a large classical ensemble, and, as such, contains a handful of clumsy transitions between its multiple sections, but is ultimately an enthralling work - unpretentiously lush and, as it breaks into the percussive canter of its middle section, playfully dramatic. In filtering Penderecki’s soundworld of sweeping glissandi and dissonant tone clusters through his lens as a popular musician, and in introducing some notion of causality and logical argument to a style of music which fought so hard to eradicate such restrictions, Greenwood arrives at a music which is undoubtedly more easy to grasp, and is certainly more palatable, than works like Threnody whilst retaining some of its tense and thrilling atmosphere.
Regrettably, the same cannot be said for the other Greenwood composition on display, 48 Responses to Polymorphia. Little more than a collection of short, inconsequential sketches, 48 Responses suffered from being programmed immediately after the towering Penderecki piece which inspired it (a fate to which Popcorn Superhet Receiver was also not immune) and somewhat paled in such distinguished company. Whilst serving to highlight the deficiencies of Greenwood’s comparatively rudimentary compositions, the teeming complexity of Penderecki’s music, calling on all manner of extended techniques such as playing behind the bridge and striking the body of the instruments, made for an utterly absorbing spectacle. Under the baton of the Polish master himself, the AUKSO Chamber Orchestra tackled these highly gestural pieces with all the verve required of them, and drew out a remarkable range of colour and (perhaps surprisingly) beauty from the works traditionally viewed as overtly harsh and abrasive.
Whilst it is difficult to see Greenwood forging a particularly unique or innovative identity as a composer, events such as this - along with the recording of these same four pieces released earlier this month on Hyperion - can only be seen in a positive light by the classical community. Greenwood’s advocacy will undoubtedly introduce vast new audiences to the bold and engaging music not only of Krzysztof Penderecki but that of Ligeti, Xenakis, Nono and beyond; a valuable legacy which is, admittedly, likely to outlive that of his music.