Penderecki's Cadenza for Viola Solo

Krzysztof Penderecki (pronounced Kzhyshtov Pendéretskee) was educated in Krakow. He rapidly acquired a reputation as one of the most original composers of his time, receiving numerous honors and serving as professor for composition at several schools including Yale University.

After a few works of an academic nature, he developed a hyper-modern technique of composition in a highly individual style, in which no demarcation line is drawn between consonances and dissonances, tonal or atonal melody, traditional or innovative instrumentation; an egalitarian attitude prevails toward all available resources of sound. While his idiom was naturally complex, he does not disdain tonality, even in its overt triadic forms.