Still, much of the music is quite beautiful, in its grave and intense way, similar to Penderecki's much-admired Shostakovich or, perhaps more relevantly in purely aural terms, Allan Pettersson. The performances by the Cracow Radio forces are uniformly impressive. The orchestra has plenty of power, seems to enjoy making the plethora of strange sounds the avant-garde works require, and is very sonorously recorded. Placing the Passacaglia and Rondo first on the disc was smart: its initial build-up is unremittingly intense and projected here with real physical impact. The Second and Third Symphonies are also available on Naxos, very well done by Antoni Wit and Co., but as a single-disc collection of some of Penderecki's most representative work, this disc is valuable and entirely recommendable.