Gorecki

Henryk Mikolaj Gorecki (1933–2010) achieved an international success in the mid-1990s, with his Symphony No. 3, “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs”. Since then, Gorecki’s name has been associated almost exclusively with this piece. However, his music is much more than this one brilliant work. Gorecki never looked at musical fashions, but consistently created his own sound universe. In the 1980s Gorecki, feeling misunderstood, stepped back from the official concert life in Poland. He reached out to simple folk and church melodies, making their choral arrangements.

Henryk Mikolaj Gorecki (1933-2010) thought two sentences in his search for the answer to the question what music is to be closest to capturing the root of the problem the words of Zbigniew Herbert: art is a transmission of important spiritual experiences and the thought of Pope John XXIII: it is a common thing, but the way is uncommon. The impact of both definitions on the composers oeuvre is particularly evident in the songs he had been writing since his first compositional attempts (falling in the mid-1950s) until 1996. Although Goreckis songs do not belong to the composers dominant expressive genres, he would return to them on a regular basis, considering them an important way of articulating the deepest, most personal, intimate experiences. This album, thanks to excellent soloists highly appreciated around the world, not only allows us to commune with the art of the outstanding Polish composer, but is also a great opportunity to hear the most representative Polish vocalists of several generations.

Composed in 1976, Górecki’s Symphony No. 3, “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs,” describes the anguished, raw pain of separation and death with music of a timeless, almost primitive quality. Its performance demands an emotional directness from both orchestra and soprano soloist, and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Krzysztof Penderecki, is in searing form alongside the fragile, unvarnished voice of Beth Gibbons, singer of UK trip-hop pioneers Portishead. Gibbons intones the tragedy of each movement with an earthbound purity and honesty, and her voice carries aloft the almost unbearably powerful second movement. That this is a live recording makes her performance all the more impressive.

Górecki, Pärt, Pelēcis, Vasks - Into Silence - Tamara-Anna Cislowska & TSO (2017) {ABC Classics Official Digital Download}
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/44kHz - Official Digital Download (prestoclassical.co.uk) -> 349 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 218 Mb | Artwork | 5% repair rar
© 2017 ABC Classics | 481 6295
Classical / Modern Classical / Baltic Composers

This new recording from Australian label ABC Classics presents beautiful piano music by Vasks, Gorecki, Part and Pelecis - some of it with orchestra, some of it solo piano. The Pelecis concerto that opens the album is almost completely unknown, and stunning. Tamara-Anna Cislowska’s recordings have won, amongst others, the 2015 ARIA Award for Best Classical Album and Gramophone Magazine Editor’s Choice.

It will not be an exaggeration to say that what holds the compositions presented on this album together is the fascination with movement. However, the sources of that interest must always besought in the way the creators perceive the world and in the place where they see music. Moreover, each of the authors of the compositions pays great attention to unique sound, timbre and harmony. Chronologically speaking, the oldest composition is Le Merle noir/The Blackbird by Olivier Messiaen.

Known worldwide for his Symphony No. 3, 'Symphony of Sorrowful Songs', Polish composer Henryk Górecki enjoys an exceptionally high profile as a composer of contemporary music. Now the Molinari Quartet has chosen to explore Górecki's chamber works with this new recording of his complete string quartets. Each quartet bears a descriptive title. The first, 'Juz sie zmierzcha [Already dusk is falling]', is named after the opening line of a motet by a Polish Renaissance composer. The second, 'Quasi una fantasia', invokes Beethoven, acknowledged by Górecki himself as his muse for his first two string quartets. The title of the third quartet,… songs are sung, comes from a line by the Russian poet Velimir Khlebnikov.

Górecki Ahead music album is an attempt to read the legacy of Henryk Mikołaj Górecki in a new way and show it in a different light than before. This record also proves how vital and inspiring is Górecki's music today, especially if its interpretations are undertaken by artists whose instrumental skills go hand in hand with creativity, imagination and the need to create an original artistic expression. Henryk Mikołaj Górecki is one of the greatest and most famous 20th-century composers. He owes his unusual popularity to the Symphony composed in 1976. Paradoxically, despite achieving success on a global scale, the composer's entire output remains virtually unknown to a wider audience…