Credo

Credo is a large-scale sacred composition for soloists, children's choir, mixed choir and orchestra by Krzysztof Penderecki, completed in 1998. It was commissioned by Helmuth Rilling for the Oregon Bach Festival, where it was first performed on 11 July 1998. Penderecki expanded the liturgical text by hymns and Bible verses in Latin, Polish and German. A recording won the 2000 Grammy Award for best choral performance. History In 1996, Penderecki was commissioned by the choral conductor Helmuth Rilling to compose a mass, planned for performances at the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart and the Oregon Bach Festival. Penderecki began with writing the Credo which is central to the text, working from 1997 to 1998. It turned so large that it defied the original liturgical use, and became an independent work. Rilling conducted the first performance on 11 July 1998 in Eugene at the Oregon Bach Festival, with soloists Juliane Banse, Milagro Vargas, Marietta Simpson, Thomas Randle and Thomas Quasthoff, the Phoenix Boys Choir, and Oregon Bach Festival chorus and orchestra. The same year, Rilling conducted national premieres in Russia, Poland and Germany. Rilling conducted a recording which won the 2000 Grammy Award in the category best choral performance. It was published by Schott. The composer conducted the work first for the Ukrainian premiere with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine at the Organ Music Concert Hall in Kyiv on 31 March 1999. After many performances around the world, he conducted it again in Kyiv at the 29th Kyiv Music Fest in 2018, marking the centenary of Polish independence.