Zofia Kilanowicz - Górecki: Symphony No. 3 ("Symphony of Sorrowful Songs"); Three Olden Style Pieces
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Free Music Notes for Górecki: Symphony No. 3 ("Symphony of Sorrowful Songs"); Three Olden Style Pieces
Free Music Review: Well deserved popularity.
Hit: 5 Stars
This record has an amazing relation price/quality. Although it is cheap, the performance and the quality of the sound are superb.
If you already have another version of this record, will be a good idea to buy this version (from Naxos). If you don't know this symphony, you must buy it. Is deep, lovely and will become one of your favorites.
The lirics are beautiful. Even though they have different origin and time, they are entirely related. They mix brilliantly with the music.
Free Music Review: Slight edge over Nonesuch
Hit: 5 Stars
I listened to the Nonesuch version first; and it was my first hearing of the piece. I was overwhelmed by the emotionalism and stark beauty of the piece, and especially Upshaw's singing.
I read, though, that the Naxos' version was even better, so also sought it out.
I cannot honestly say that one is better than the other, or which soprana is best; both versions are quite simply some of the most beautiful music I have ever heard.
I do give the edge to Naxos for two reasons; the first is obviously the price, and the second is the addition of the "Three Olden Pieces" which act as a perfect postlude to the symphony and function as a "winding down" of the emotion of the main piece.
If you could only have one version I would receommend this, but there's absolutely no reason why you shouldn't own both.
Free Music Review: In Memorium
Hit: 5 Stars
Henryk Gorecki's "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs" will be heard around the world in the next weeks. What better music could there be to honor the memory of Pope John Paul II than music composed and performed by his fellow countrymen?
Though I have long favored the Zinman/Upshaw recording of this beautiful, moving work, returning to this recording by the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Antoni Wit, with the soprano Zofia Kilanowicz, brings a renewed ear for the authenticity of the sound both of the orchestra and vocalist.
This is a finely paced, luxuriously beautiful reading and is recorded very well. Kilanowicz' voice may not be of the same caliber as Dawn Upshaw's, but the poetry of the text is surpassingly plangent. Not that anything about Pope John Paul's life was morose: his life was far more communicative and celebratory. But still this particular recording is befitting the sorrow that the world feels at this time and for that reason alone it is one to be considered for everyone's library. Grady Harp, April 05
Free Music Review: emotionally useful at a time of bereavement
Hit: 5 Stars
I only own the one recording, this one from Naxos. So this is not about the comparative merits of one performance over another.
I did note that one previous reviewer found the repetitive nature of the music very... toxic? Unless in my musical unsophistication I have made a mistake, the first movement is a canon. A contrapuntal form most recognizable to us in Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D. Repetition is central to the form, and I found the canon of the first movement as effective emotionally as Barber's Adagio, or Ravel's Pavanne. And the structure, first building up to the voice solo, then building down in reverse. Very solid, very effective use of the form, to my unsophisticated ears.
But the main point for me was the use I was able to put this music to, having recently experienced the death of a family member, with whom I had a difficult relationship.
The connection between mother and son, and the deep suffering that the death of one or the other brings. Not just the words, but also the mood of the music acted at mutiple levels and helped me to access the process of mourning in a way that nothing else had.
First there is the 15th century lamentation of Mary, desiring to suffer instead of her son. Next is a petition to Mary, taken from scratchings on a Gestapo jail cell wall, beginning "Mother, no, do not cry." And then in the third movement, the words of a mother mourning the death of her son... not just dead but also lost. Every stage of the grief process is there, in those few lines of the thrid movement, echoed and paralleled by shifts in key signature and melodic line.
This music works on so many levels that I want to use the word, synergism. An integrated whole. A modern masterpiece. Gorecki displays, in my opinion, intimate knowledge of the subject. Experiential knowledge, expertly presented.
Yes, it is an expression of sadness. But also an expression of progress and resolution. We are not left in despair. The mother of the third movement copes, and moves on. There is healing in this music.
Free Music Review: Seven Sorrows
Hit: 5 Stars
This CD is very accessible for those less familiar with classical. It is achingly sorrowful. The first movement is the best. It builds very slowly from deep sonorous basses to mournful strings. Exploring the depths of sorrow but still exquisitely beautiful. The lyrics to each movement are helpful as an aid to meditation on the sorrowful mysteries or the seven sorrows of the Virgin Mary. Listen and Pray.