Written for four soloists, large mixed chorus and an orchestra featuring quadruple wind and six horns, A Polish Requiem is among Penderecki’s most powerful and moving works. It was composed over a period of 13 years, beginning in 1980 with the Lacrimosa, written for Lech Walesa and Solidarność. The Neo-Romanticism of Penderecki’s music from the latter 1970s is here combined with the more experimental procedures of his earlier years. A vital unifying factor is the traditional Polish hymn Święty Boże, which impinges on the music in many and varied ways as a potent symbol of the work’s purpose as a requiem for the sufferings of the Polish nation.