Kronos Quartet/ Henryk Gorecki - Henryk Gorecki: String Quartet No. 3...songs are sung
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Music CD Cover Artist: Kronos Quartet/ Henryk Gorecki Edition: Music CD CD Release Date: 2007-03-20 Music Label: Nonesuch Soundtracks:
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Free Music Notes for Henryk Gorecki: String Quartet No. 3...songs are sung Album
Free Music Review: "Symphony" of Suffering Songs
Hit: 4 Stars
Before I begin this review, let me clear the air of a few things which you, the reader, ought to know about me, the reviewer:
For one, within the realm of composed music, the string quartet is among my least favorite of all forms of chamber music. I personally find the interplay between violins, violas, and cellos to be drab after the first movement. Very few composers have composed a work for string quartet which has caused me to reconsider: Alvin Lucier is one, as well as Stockhausen. Not even Mozart or Shostakovich has captivated me in regards to the quartet.
Second, I don't especially like a majority of the music which the Kronos Quartet chooses to play, even though I find it more listenable than the pseudo-sophisticated avant-garde which the Arditti Quartet chooses to play. I often find that the Kronos Quartet and Arditti Quartets both fall rather flat when it comes to innovation, though I would always vote in favor of the Arditti Quartet when it comes to talent and technicality.
Having stated my disapprobations, then I am prepared to say that I found this piece, by Gorecki, of whom I'm an admirer, to be quite exceptional insofar that it's one of the few works for string quartet by the Kronos Quartet which has given me reason to reconsider my common misgivings about ALL string quartets. The dynamic interplay between violins, viola, and cello is so subtle that, during certain passages, when the texture has changed so significantly, as during the third and fourth movements, one finds it hard to believe any terrain has been covered at all. This is far from a criticism when one considers the appropriate dirge-like imagery which is evoked by the haunting voices calling from the grave.
"Death" and "mortality" are the underlying themes of this work, through and through. Even the subtitle, "...songs are sung", comes from the four-line poem by Russian writer Velimir Khlebnikov, "When people die, they sing songs." not only that, but Gorecki even marks the fourth movement as MORBIDO. In fact, I personally find that this music would be extremely fitting for a documentary about the concentration camps and post-WWII, early Cold War sufferings in Poland with black-and-white film footage.
And perhaps that's what Gorecki had in mind. The famous Symphony No. 3 was subtitled "Sorrowful Songs." How fitting it would be to call String Quartet No. 3 "Songs of Suffering." But it's not an atrocious suffering which Gorecki brings to the forefront. Oh, heavens no! Gorecki presents in the format of a score a sense of upset and suffering which we, the listener, are not affronted by, but one in which we are drawn into it, feel a stately compassion for each other and ourselves, and he allows the piece to finish itself in the most majestic of manners by having us realize that all which we've been listening to for the past 50 minutes is what we are, who we are, and where we are.
Truly, Gorecki and the Kronos Quartet have given me hope in the string quartet.