As the success of his film scores shows, Zbigniew Preisner knows exactly how to compose effective and immediately impressive music with an acute sense of timing. Requiem For My Friend, his first work written specifically for concert performance, also shows this ability, but placed in a new context. Scored for five voices, organ, string quintet and percussion, the first part, “Requiem”, employs words from the Latin Missa pro defunctis, and one feels that the ghosts of chant and the polyphonic tradition are often not far away (particularly in the opening “Officium” and the Kyrie). A good deal of other music is suggested during the course of the work: one occasionally thinks of the Gorecki of the Third Symphony or O Domina nostra, or Part, and also other composers of film music such as Vangelis or Jerry Goldsmith. This said, however, the work has its own sense of direction and cohesion and the relatively limited resources are put to very effective use: the only section that I felt really did not work is the Agnus Dei, which relies too heavily on sentiment and whose Wurlitzerish combination of organ and strings is very saccharine. The most effective movement for me is the unaccompanied “Lux aeterna”, simple and folk-like, but there are memorable things particularly in the “Lacrimosa”, which attains a real dramatic power with its repetitive melodic tag, and the “Offertory”, whose character is defined by the subtle use of recitative-like vocal writing.
The second part of the work, “Life”, for much larger forces and also in nine movements, is generally less successful in that it has less sense of unity and relies not so much on distinctive musical material as on the kind of symphonic film music gestures which work excellently in context but which fail to sustain interest or to cohere as a concert work (try the Orff-Jerry Goldsmith sounds of “Veni et vidi” to see what I mean). There are nevertheless some fine things, such as the saxophone writing (and playing) in “The beginning”, or the hushed, valedictory “Prayer”. This is music which wears its heart on its sleeve, and as a personal memorial to a friend (the film director, Krzysztof Kieslowski) that is entirely appropriate. Its ability to communicate to others would seem to me to depend upon the receptivity of the listener, but somehow I foresee a considerable success for this uncompromising and at the same time accessible work.'