Gorecki

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…

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.

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.

The essay in the program booklet for this release of Górecki's String Quartet No. 3 (…songs were sung), makes much of a supposed caesura in Górecki's creative output following the phenomenal success of Nonesuch's 1992 release of this Third Symphony, with soprano Dawn Upshaw, which elevated him practically to the level of a pop star. The essay implies that his meteoric rise to being one of the most famous and popular contemporary composers may have produced a creative crisis that caused him to wait until 2005 to finally deliver the score of his Third Quartet, which he had written in the winter of 1994-1995. In fact, Górecki's sudden notoriety seems to have had little effect on his creativity; between 1993 and 2004, he wrote 16 opus numbers.

The Warsaw Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, under the artistic direction of its founder, Jan Lewtak, is proud to present an album of chamber music by the Polish composer Mikołaj Piotr Górecki. Mikołaj Piotr Górecki, who now lives in the United States, is an esteemed composer of contemporary Polish music. His works not only refer to the musical legacy of his father, Henryk Mikołaj, but also reflect a unique artistic path, displaying a wealth of aesthetic influences. The five works by Górecki recorded on this disc were composed over a period of almost a quarter of a century, between 1998 and 2022.

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.