Henryk Gorecki: Symphony 3 "Sorrowful Songs"
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Free Music Notes for Henryk Gorecki: Symphony 3 "Sorrowful Songs"
Free Music Review: Beautiful Music
Hit: 5 Stars
The music itself,is just wonderful. The symphony has been composed with such 'feeling,and the soprano Dawn Upshaw has a glorious voice. This C.D. is well worth a listen.Lea.Free Music Review: Suffering at its acme
Hit: 5 Stars
This symphony is poignant because it is the lamentations of three women. It is so rare to have the direct lamentations of three women, of women as for that. Most of the time such lamentations are indirect, captured through the eye and the pen of a man of some sort. Anne Franks are rare in this world. And Maries are just as little numerous. The first woman is this Mary herself expressing her sorrow on Jesus and his death. She wants to take over the wounds and the suffering. The second is the prayer of an eighteen year old girl in a gestapo cell in Poland where she must have lived her last days and hours, a prayer to the intercessor - Mary again - to help her live her death through. The third one is that of a mother who has lost her son to the war - we assume - or whatever any violent event and who thinks of her total state of forlornness that her life is going to be with no intercessor or accompanier for her to walk up to death, with no son anymore, not even a body, not event a grave, not even anything that could give some materiality to his existence, to her solace. Strange progression that then reminds us of the fact that the man-composer is the one telling us the story, unwrapping, unrolling and spreading out the three lamentations. Then the symphony reveals another story, another meaning. The admiration for both Jesus, the victim, and Mary, his mother. The immense communion in the serene and apprehensive suffering of the young woman standing on the threshold of victimized death, the man witness feeling horror surging up in his silent throat. And finally the man-composer disappearing in the last movement like the missing body of that boy taken away by a war or a revolution of some kind. Gorecki is able to recreate or rediscover the power of the compositions and singing of Hildegarde von Bingen. Entirely introspective, introvertly-oriented. The lamentation is addressed to the lamenting person herself. It is as if the whole horror of history was entirely contained in our own souls, minds and spirits, as if we were the alpha and the omega of the whole suffering plus every single moment of it in between, from this alpha to that omega self-contemplative lamentation. And her tears can become ours. And maybe we can share the deep gnawing evil of life for some transient moments.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine & University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne
Free Music Review: Henryk Gorecki: Symphony 3 "Sorrowful Songs"
Hit: 5 Stars
This is a beautiful CD with music that floats in and out of my conciousness. Beautifully ethereal and suddenly dissonent and sad. Sometimes I have it on as background music and am suddenly awoken to the voice in the background calling me softly to attention, to presence.Free Music Review: An important emotional journey
Hit: 5 Stars
Gorecki's 3rd symphony is something to listen to, first, to understand the important history of Poland and second, to allow yourself to become completely undone emotionally and put back together again--and better for it. It is a very moving symphony. Dawn Upshaw's voice is transcendent. Benjamin Britten's, "War Requiem" is another highly recommended CD of similar scope to own and listen to over and over. It is highly recommended to read the poetry in the liner notes in both of these CD's to understand the music completely--as any astute music lister would do.Free Music Review: Gorecki - Spiritual and Emotional
Hit: 5 Stars
Written for the 50th anniversary concert of Hitler's invasion of Poland and the ensuing tragedies, Henryk Gorecki's Symphony No. 3 is a powerful, prayer-like setting of memories of those events. While considered a modern composer, the work is firmly rooted in the tonal world, often creating a mantra/meditative feel; the 1976 composition is as emotional today, as it was in its own time.
The subtitle "Sorrowful Songs" is lost a little in the Polish translation, where the sense of "Wordless song", "prayer and exhortation", and "elegiac and redemptive lullaby" are qualities involved in the literal translation. The unique orchestration (4 flutes, 2 piccolos, 4 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 4 trombones, harp, piano, and full string ensemble) give a full, rich, intimate, chamber sound, but the beauty of a solo soprano voice adds to the absolute quality of the instruments. In three movements, each conveys a prayer in a contrasting, yet peaceful manner. Ingeniously, the 26-minute first movement is dominated simply by a canon; based on a folk song, the tune is taken up by the double-basses in low tessitura, and each voice enters at a fifth. It begins rather muddy in the lower voices, but, the gently shifting, repetitious nature, as well as the natural crescendo (achieved by adding instruments and increasing register) comes to a powerful climax, of which the movement ends the opposite by subtracting voices. 13 minutes into the opening movement, the mood changes from the kaleidoscopic motion of shifting strings, to full chords, piano attacks, and a prayer sung by soprano over huge, lush string chords. The effects of the first movement are intriguing and intense, but highly satisfying. The nine-minute second movement's text was found on the wall of Cell No. 3 in "The Palace", a Gestapo's headquarters in Zakopane, written by an 18-year old imprisoned in 1944. Lush minor chords open the movement with a rising motive. Exclamation of "Mama, mama, do not weep" referring personally and religiously, is heartbreaking. Again, thick and lush string ensemble chords dominate the texture, but rather than the ever-moving canon of the opening, long sustained, slowly-shifting chords support the pleas of the soprano soloist; the movement ends unresolved. Equally heart-wrenching is the text of the third movement; a mother who fears her son has died at the hands of the enemy, and is buried in an unknown land, asks God's flowers to cover and protect her son. The soprano melody is simple and seemingly folk-based, but more active and dramatic than the preceding movement; feelings of hopelessness and utter sorrow are sincerely portrayed with the endless shifting string chords, which seem more sounds of unearthly, or ancient chordal movements. The 17-minute final movement and the whole work ends in A major, full of hopefulness and a feeling that all of our prayers have been received with the genuine sincerity in which they have been given.
David Zinman and the London Sinfonietta make this music sparkle, with a deep, velvety sheen. I do not feel that the work is overly sappy, but sincere and passionate performances. The sound is wonderfully resonant and speaks well; the orchestra plays magnificently and is captured well on recording. Dawn Upshaw is outstanding, both bright and luscious, she gives each movement a different mood, making the work a dramatic experience which unfolds, rather than a set of movements. David Zinman adds nothing that Gorecki doesn't ask for, and the composers' natural intent is given on this recording. Gorecki's music is engaging and in this case, broaches toward minimalism, rooted in tonality and modality, the prayer-like music never becomes boring or merely repetitious, but it all ends too soon. 15 years after the Zinman performance and 30 years after its composition, the work has an amazingly powerful statement and immense spirituality. A must-have recording.