Product description

Henryk Gorecki: Symphony 3 "Sorrowful Songs"

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Average customer rating: 5.0

Binding : Audio CD
EAN : 0075597928228
Label : Nonesuch
Manufacturer : Nonesuch
Publisher : Nonesuch
Release date : 1992-05-05
Title : Henryk Gorecki: Symphony 3 "Sorrowful Songs"
Studio : Nonesuch
MPN : 79282
Number of discs : 1

Editorial reviews

Amazon.com essential recording
This album, which catapulted Polish composer Henryk Gorecki to into the international spotlight, takes texts born in pain and turns them into statements of affirmation through the use of music that ebbs and flows in mystic minimalism. The clear voice of soprano Dawn Upshaw, singing the Polish texts, is a large part of the success of this particular recording, but the music, contemporary without either dissonance or movie-music mawkishness, clarifies and uplifts the words. This is a moving and essential element of the modern repertoire. --Sarah Bryan Miller

Customer reviews

review by: aka Radi Warszawski date: 2008-12-08 rating:

A morbid thought, maybe, but I want the 1st movement played at my funeral Mass. All 26 minutes of it!
I imagine my spirit slowly rising, then making a grand statement, and then being whisked off at the conclusion of Dawn Upshaw's masterful singing, followed by a sense of settling down ... nothing remaining but a spiritless body.

review by: date: 2008-11-23 rating:

sad, sad music
I have only one complaint, and it might be a little nontraditional: the first movement of the symphony...I'd swear I've heard it in a war movie or the like...some sad scene on a battlefield strewn with soldiers' bodies and drifting smoke. For some reason, thinking this takes something away from the piece for me. Stupid, I know. But once you're past the first movement, it is stunning. And of course, w/o the Hollywood images rolling through my head, the first movement would be stunning as well.

review by: date: 2008-11-04 rating:

Superb! Deep and amazingly performed
Gorecki belongs to the Great Fours, as the group of composers of Polish contemporary music is called, and this piece is probably the most popular one. If someone was not familiar with for. ex. Pendercki, Gorecki is more likely to be recognized, even by people who are not much in love with classical music. Gorecki is rooted in tradition, religious mysticism and folk music of his native country. But he is not the prisoner of tradition or slave of the sources of his inspiration.

The music and the words are moving. Deep sorrow, yet also peace. All performers do superb job. The orchestra, the conductor and Dawn Upshaw. She has such voice that it really draws you into some universe on its own. It made me chocked with emotions. And she does great singing out the Polish words, with great clarity. (This language is so difficult to pronounce, and difficult to sing in opera. The sounds are not so clear like for example in Italian).

Someone doesn't need to be a lover of classical music: if I remember right this music ranked high on charts of popular music, like once the chants of Benedictine monks did. I think it is music for everyone, just let you being carried by it. I am sure it will steer deep emotions, and be in a little bit meditative mood.Of course reactions vary from time to time, one day we can perceive more sorrow and anguish, one day more sadness and peace.Highly recommend!

review by: musical eclectic date: 2008-10-08 rating:

Polish lament
I am not a trained musician and cannot speak in such terms. However, I can speak to the emotion I felt as I listened to this music. I find this work particularly moving from the near silence of the beginning of the first movement to the plaintive prayer to Our Lady in the last. To me this is a piece of quiet power; the gradual crescendo of sound to Dawn Upshaw's first soaring soprano and gradual decrescendo to near silence in the first movement, the soulful prayer to the Holy Mother in the second movement. In the third movement where one might expect anger I heard the despairing lament and final quiet resolution. I do not speak Polish but am familiar with the sounds of the language. Dawn Upshaw sings with such clarity that I was able to follow the Polish libretto without difficulty. I am not Catholic but can hear the strong faith in this piece. I believe that even if one is not religious the beauty of this work will move one.

review by: date: 2008-08-11 rating:

Pink Floyd does better
This is tripe. Do you love Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Bruckner, Mahler, Debussy, Ravel, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, and Vaughan Williams? Well, you won't love this garbage. It is MUCH better to love the Beatles and Pink Floyd for what they honestly are. They are at least sincere and original art, in their sphere. This is a fraud on every level. It is properly used for backing tracks on bad movies and pop albums. It is music for callow youths who know nothing about aforementioned composers or music, but want to pretend they are "cerebral" and "deep". It is "classical" music for people who want to translate the machinations of the pop world into a score for a real paid orchestra. Mr. Holland's "Opus" rates as high. I'm sure orchestras love it- no rehearsals needed. Read the funny papers while sawing through this repetitive mediocre pop mess. Good god, Keith Emerson is a bona fide Mozart (and in fact is compared to Glass, Reich etc.) compared to this mindless dreck. I'll take a Bernard Herrman or a John Williams soundtrack any day. Ask yourself this: Why does your friend who knows "absolutely nothing" about classical music declare this as their favorite "classical" album? Guess.

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