Utrenja, alternatively spelled as Utrenia,[1] Utrenya, or Jutrznia, and sometimes also translated as Matins,[2] is a set of two liturgical compositions[3] by Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki.
Critical and audience reception of the work was tumultuous, partly due to the Polish government crackdown following the Gdansk shipyard riots.
Krzysztof Penderecki himself stated in a radio interview prior to the work's premiere that he reached his own musical style with the composition and the opinion of critics did not concern him.
[16] German magazine Neue Zeitschrift für Musik considered it an "emotionally moving piece",[17] while Martin Blindow, from Music und Kirche, stated that Utrenja was "one of the most important large choral works of our time", even though it was not intended for liturgic performance.
[19] Andrew DeRhen, from High Fidelity, considered that Penderecki missed the opportunity to give Utrenja a genuine Eastern flavor, and he used an international modernist style instead;[20] however, other journals praised the composition for the same reason.
[22] Austrian magazine Öesterreichische Musikzeitschrift also stated that the composition "can be easily understood on an emotional level by listeners, despite its passages of clusters and its lack of clear tonality.
[27] In a performance in Rotterdam, Trevor Richardson, from Music and Musicians, considered the work of little interest, but "no more boring than a great deal of other perfectly acceptable music of all periods.”[28] Ewangelia and Kanon Paschy, Pieśń 8 from Part II, along with other pieces by Penderecki, were used in the 1980 Stanley Kubrick film The Shining, along with pieces by Wendy Carlos, György Ligeti, and Béla Bartók.