Classical Music Reviews
Return to the Requiem Index
Articles from Sequence II:
MAHLER Kindertotenlieder
GÓRECKI Symphony of Sorrowful Songs
PENDERECKI A Polish Requiem. The Dream of Jacob
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a survey of contemporary composers
HENRYK MIKOLAJ GÓRECKI (b.1933)
Symphony No.3, op.36 (1976) |
ELEKTRA NONESUCH (Warner Classics) 7559-79282-2
Although it was composed in 1976, Górecki's Third Symphony did not reach the (international) public at large until this 1993 release. Within a few weeks of its release, this album rocketted up the UK Classical and Pop Album charts. A Gramophone Award Winner (1993), the CD remains the best-selling album of music by a contemporary composer.
Little then needs to be said other than that this is a classic. The intense performance and shining tone of the London Sinfonietta is matched by the beautifully nuanced singing of Dawn Upshaw. Their invocations of light, both in the string textures and her radiant voice, are wondrous to behold. The recording is excellent, capturing the shifting moods, the gloomy darkness, the rays of light and the silences beautifully.
NAXOS 8.550822
Recorded in the place of its creation, Kawotice, and by a local orchestra, the kinship this Polish team shows for their countryman's music is very real. I'm almost certain that some of the perfomers may have lost relatives in the Holocaust. This performance is darker in tone and undoubtedly heartfelt, intense. The orchestra fielded is bigger, and hence the more sumptious body of sound, with a massive invocation of space between the eight string parts in the first movement.
Zofia Kilanowicz's performance is a must-hear. She has a very fine voice of many colours. Her singing in the final movement is particularly special, for she somehow succeeds in combining a sense of tenderness, weariness, hope, yearning, serenity, sorrow, peace and resignation all at once. The Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra under the fine Antoni Wit match her in all her sensitivity.
The coupling is the Three Pieces in the Old Style (1963). Averaging three minutes apiece, the first is similar in mood to the Symphony, while the second is a dance episode reminscent of English string pastoralism. The final Piece begins melancholically, but soon develops a heightened atmosphere, as if one is experiencing a vision.
The cover image, the famous "Scream" by Edvard Munch, doesn't quite match the music but definitely conveys the horror of the Holocaust. Excellent, full sound.
Dawn Upshaw (soprano)
London Sinfonietta conducted by David Zinman.
[53'44"] full-price. Texts in Polish, English, French and German.
Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (Kawotice) conducted by Antoni Wit.
[66'05"] budget-price. Texts in Polish and English.
163: 8.5.98. up.12.9.1999 ©Chia Han-Leon