Track Listing

1. Symphony No. 3 Op. 36 (1976): I. Lento - Sostenuto Tranquillo Ma Cantabile
2. Symphony No. 3 Op. 36 (1976): II. Lento e Largo - Tranquillissimo
3. Symphony No. 3 Op. 36 (1976): III. Lento - Cantabile Semplice

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5608 in Music
• Released on: 1992-07-06
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds
• Running time: 54 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
This album, which catapulted Polish composer Henryk Górecki 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

From Amazon.com
You gotta have this. After all, everyone else does, right? This was the classical music phenomenon of the 1990s. An obscure Polish composer writes a symphony setting texts all dealing with the subject of sorrow or oppression. It's a very long symphony, too, and scored almost entirely for string orchestra, mostly very slow and very quiet. And it sells millions of copies and the astonished composer gets rich beyond his wildest dreams (and good for him!). So the record companies rush out to record more of his music, only none of it sounds like this symphony, so nobody buys it, and his star wanes once again. That's life, I guess. --David Hurwitz

Customer Reviews

A great performance of a masterpiece
This is the music of heartbreak, sorrow and redemption, echoing Polish history in the twentieth century. Its centrepoint, sung with soaring ecstasy by Dawn Upshaw, is a prayer to Mary by one of the victims (who thankfully survived) of Gestapo persecution. It has also become associated with the Holocaust (it was sung by Isabel Bayrakdarian in the recent Auschwitz commemoration).

My only reservation with the work is the last movement, perhaps rather too long and anticlimatic after the intensity of what has come before. But listen to the simplicity and spiritual quality of the first movement, the two orchestral parts of mirror each other; and the radiance of the prayer that follows, and reflect again on the dark days of the 1940s when the forces of evil rampaged throughout Europe.

This was deservedly a best seller - and, pace the Amazon reviewer above - Gorecki has written other popular (and approachable) works: try his Totus Tuus, written for the late Pope's visit to Poland.

Essential listening


This is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I have ever heard.

I am not an expert in classical music but this piece seems to have a universal appeal.

The middle part of the symphony `Lento e Largo' will be familiar to many as it was the soundtrack to a recent excellent BBC documentary on the Nazi's final solution, and an abridged version features on many classical chill out compilations.

But it really deserves to be heard in full and in context with the other pieces which are beautiful in their own right. I now listen to the third part, Lento: Cantabile-semplice, most.

It is worth knowing that the words to the middle part are derived from words inscribed by a prisoner on the walls of a Gestapo cell. `No, Mother, do not weep,
Most chaste Queen of Heaven. Support me always'

This part, astonishing in its vocal power, sounds like the end of the world. It is truly inspiring that such beautiful music can originate from our darkest times. The third part, for me, expresses a rebirth and a testament to the human strength to carry on against the odds.

It sometimes reminds me of the terrible starkness I saw when I visited Auschwitz. However, the piece means different things to people I have met. It rarely fails to bring a reaction because it manages to strike such a chord with the human condition.

Some people have called it `depressing'. However, this is a great disservice to the work which so many find inspiring. For me, the quiet reflection this piece offers is often the perfect antidote to the chaotic, often ugly world we live in.

A spiritual odyssey from heartbreak to redemption
While this is indeed a collection of sorrowful songs, it is more calming than harrowing. While one of the Amazon reviewers claims that none of Gorecki's other music resembles this, one should point out that his Miserere is just as moving, and just as slow moving, as the third symphony. This is music with huge emotional power, even for an utterly irreligious person like me. People who rarely listen to classical music and enjoy this should try Arvo Part's work or Schnittke's Choir Concerto and Requiem (on Hyperion). It will break then mend the stoutest heart.