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: Absolutely Superlative
Hit: 5 Stars
The beauty of Gorecki's 3rd symphony is stunning. Its popularity attests to the public's need for beautiful yet profound music, after the last century's serialism, atonality, and aleatoric music. Historically, Gorecki's composition comes to us as a benediction at the close of the bloodiest century mankind has yet lived through. For that reason alone, it is necessary and valuable.
Choosing between this version and the Upshaw one is a matter of personal preference. Both performances are magnificent. This disk includes 3 additional short works, while the Upshaw has more extensive liner notes.
Free Music Review: This would be the best version even at non-bargain prices
Hit: 5 Stars
This disc is truly the best of both worlds: an amazingly cheap (cheap! not merely affordable) classical disc of a fascinating piece of musical magnificently performed. Despite the presence of premium priced versions of this haunting piece of music (as well as at least one other very good bargain version), Antoni Wit directing the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra manages to outshine the competition. I knew two previous versions of this before, the famous Nonesuch with David Zinman and Dawn Upshaw, and the Philips with Joanna Kozlowska undertaking the vocals. I recommend this version over the alternatives for four reasons. First, the price is unbeatable. Second, I believe the performance is marginally better than its competitors. Third, the remarkable singing of Zofia Kilanowicz. Fourth, unlike some recordings of this symphony, the disc contains not only the symphony itself, but "Three Olden Style Pieces," which while not as interesting as the main piece are not without interest. In short, this disc features the best performance, is offered at the best price, and contains more music than its competitors.
I do want to question the logic behind one of the other reviews. A reviewer from Derbyshire has expressed his belief that this music is somehow intellectually inferior and that its effects can be as harmful as a drug. I'm sure this was meant hyperbolically, but even granting this, this seems to me to indicate some confusion. In fact, the point is confusedly made. He grants that in Ravel (in the Bolero, a piece that I like not only less than most of the rest of Ravel's corpus but far less than the Gorecki) repetition is effective, and also in Beethoven. Why Gorecki's use of repetition is supposed (I emphasize "supposed") to be less effective is not made clear. Is it because the symphony is popular? Personally, I find the symphony haunting. The music strikes the listener with the simplicity of simple folks tunes and simple masses. Yes, it produces a stunning emotional reaction and can be almost mesmerizing. I personally do not see how this is a negative.
Although this is almost without question the most popular symphony of the past few decades, it has been subject to some criticism because it isn't sufficiently "modern." I worked for a couple of years at Symphony Center in Chicago, where the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performs. I was fascinated to hear backstage the intense hatred a significant number of the orchestra members had for the work of most recent composers. Someone like Gorecki, however, they liked. To me it seems like a perfect instance of the musicians themselves knowing that the emperors had no clothes. We have, I believe, at present something of a gap between fans of orchestral music and musicians on the one hand, and composers and composition teachers on the other. Contemporary orchestral compositions have been plummeting in popularity in the period following Stravinsky and other composers of the early twentieth century, and I would argue that the impossibility of enjoying these compositions on more than an intellectual level has been one of their greatest problems. I am not arguing that orchestral music should be anti-intellectual, but it can't be merely intellectual, as too much of it is.
Free Music Review: Better than Upshaw!
Hit: 5 Stars
This is an absolutely wonderful recording from the Naxos label.The recording quality is exemplary and the dynamic range powerful in its progressive
climb through the first movement -- but not so great as to necessitate changing the
volume part way through if driving or doing other activities while listening to the
piece.
Zofia Kilanowicz is breathtaking in her skill. Her clarity of tone is, to my ear, much
greater than Dawn Upshaw's. Further, her ability to partially suspend vibrato is a
great asset in this piece, emphasizing the deep sorrow that lies just beneath the
beauty of the presentation and lending to the crisp minimalist, modern feel of the
piece.
Lastly, to include the 3 Pieces in Olden style is simply a wonderful bonus on an
already shockingly well priced CD. The second of the three pieces was inspired by
the same folk melody that Gorecki again returns to in his chamber piece "Already it
is Dusk".
This is simply the best recording of this piece, at the best price and then topped off
with a bonus piece of music -- you can not go wrong.
Antoni Wit also does a fantastic job conducting the Polish National Radio
Symphony Orchestra (PNRSO) in the Naxos recording of Smetana's Ma Vlast --
also the best recording available of that piece (except possibly Rafael Kubelik on
DG -- but, it is roughly $20 and the Naxos is roughly $9).
Free Music Review: BE CAREFUL
Hit: 5 Stars
Take this as a rating of the performance and recording, not of the music. The recorded tone, and particularly the placing of the voice in relation to the orchestra, is extraordinarily effective, outstandingly so at a bargain price. Zofia Kilanowicz has a really lovely voice, and I am pleased to learn from another review how well the Polish is pronounced, an issue that would otherwise have had me worried.
Anyone succumbing to music like this is letting himself or herself be dumbed-down, it seems to me. For me real music involves the brain and mind, not just the senses. To repeat a single phrase over and over and...over and.....in the manner of Mr M Nyman is trifling with music and worse. We all know that the device can be brilliantly effective (Pachelbel's canon, Ravel's bolero) and more than just effective (Beethoven's 7th), but there are rational limits. What we have here is three poems that should go straight to the heart of anyone, particularly any parent, of even average sensitivity. They are set cleverly, professionally and effectively like jewels in a surround consisting of no more than a glorified relaxation-tape. This is a musical semi-narcotic, about as good for our souls as as such substances are for our bodies. Just say no, say I.
Free Music Review: My Preferred Version Also
Hit: 5 Stars
I own three versions of this symphony. While I started with the Upshaw version and love it still, this version is now my favorite. One annoying feature of the Upshaw version is that the volume starts out so low that one can't even hardly tell the recording is playing, so you have to either have a calibrated volume control, or be prepared to be adjusting the volume half way through the first movement. While the broad dynamic range is certainly critical to the composition, the Naxos recording is not so annoying in this regard. The vocals are excellent, and I want to believe that the Polish National Orchestra plays the composition with more pride and feeling of ownership than the London Symphony; but maybe that more reflects my love for Poland, Eastern Europe in general, and the people. For the low price, this is an outstanding buy. If you want only one version, I recommend that this be your choice.