Works For Organ

Lerchenmusik

The Polish Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Sopot was established by Wojciech Rajski in 1982 and consists of dynamic musicians, all of whom are soloists in their own right. Its typical sound—fire, precision and lightness or, to say it with others words, vitality, discipline and elegance—is praised by the critics worldwide.

Presented on three discs, this new release features the very best compositions of Henryk Gorecki (1933-2010) A Polish composer of contemporary classical music, Gorecki became a prominent figure of the Polish avant-garde during the post-Stalin era. While Gorecki’s music varies in style, his works tend to lean toward harmonic and rhythmic simplicity. He is regarded as a founder of the ‘New Polish School’, joined by Witold Lutoslawski and Krzysztof Penderecki.

• World premiere recordings of twenty Church Songs for a cappella Choir, adapted by Henryk Mikołaj Górecki • Written mostly in May and June 1986 • Most of the original old melodies (some dating back to the 14th century) were taken from “Church Songbooks” by Rev. Jan Siedlecki • “Church Songs” are well in agreement with the general outline of the composer’s oeuvre • The Cracow Singers in Tribute to H.M. Górecki - Włodzimierz Siedlik - artistic director and conductor

The Quartet No. 3 "... Songs are Sung," Op. 67 by Henryk Mikolaj G�recki belongs to the late works of the composer, and for a long time it was considered to be his last opused work. It was composed in the '90s on commission of the Kronos ensemble. The artist would redo it several times before he eventually decided to "release it to the world." The reference to a song in the title is not accidental - the cantabile category, in combination with sometimes dramatic, sometimes doleful and melancholic narration additionally contributes to the Quartet becoming a sui generis chamber echo of the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs No. 3. The perception of the piece is dominated with G�recki's style, recognizable by almost every music lover- deeply emotional, introverted, frugal, and at the same time extremely moving. The Daf� Quartet, the first female string quartet in Poland, have been fascinated audiences with contemporary music performance from the beginning of their career; they belong to the most outstanding performers of Polish chamber music.

The title "Zan Tontemiquico" is drawn from a poem by Tochihuitzin, a prince and poet who lived at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries. The poem was written in N�huatl, which was spoken in the present Mexico before the arrival of Spaniards. In a free translation the title means "We only come to dream." This, closing the album, programme piece for orchestra, superbly performed by the Aukso ensemble directed by Marek Mos, is preceded by two compositions dedicated to the musicians of the Silesian Trio. The Titanic Trio is inspired by a whole range of cultural associations, not only musical, present in the legend of the Titanic, including the poetry of Czeslaw Milosz. The deprived of the programme references Trio Concertante, recorded together with Aukso, is calligraphically economical, yet at the same time emotionally rich music - consisting of strongly separated sound plans. The works present the main characteristics of the pieces by Mikolaj G�recki: musical erudition, allusiveness, atmosphere, and stylistic diversity.

Nicholas Copernicus once wrote: “What can be more beautiful than the sky, which of course contains everything beautiful.” At the inauguration of the 72nd artistic season of the Symphony Orchestra of the Silesian Philharmonic, Henryk Mikolaj Gorecki presented one of the most important works of his Patron- the monumental 2nd Symphony- Copernicus, composed for New York’s Kosciuszko Foundation, to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the birth of Nicolaus Copernicus. In the symphony, which is characteristic of Gorecki’s works, the non-literal literary theme of biblical quotations and the Treaty of the rotation of celestial spheres is of great importance. The words in the Symphony No. 2 were not only significant as inspiration or a starting point, but they became what was directly addressed to the listener. He does not have to read them on the show or in the score, but he directly and explicitly hears them.

Henryk Mikolaj G�recki (1933-2010) thought two sentences in his search for the answer to the question what music is to be closest to capturing the root of the problem - the words of Zbigniew Herbert: "art is a transmission of important spiritual experiences" and the thought of Pope John XXIII: "it is a common thing, but the way is uncommon." The impact of both definitions on the composer's oeuvre is particularly evident in the songs he had been writing since his first compositional attempts (falling in the mid-1950s) until 1996. Although G�recki's songs do not belong to the composer's dominant expressive genres, he would return to them on a regular basis, considering them an important way of articulating the deepest, most personal, intimate experiences. This album, thanks to excellent soloists highly appreciated around the world, not only allows us to commune with the art of the outstanding Polish composer, but is also a great opportunity to hear the most representative Polish vocalists of several generations.

The Symphony No. 3, called the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, for solo soprano and orchestra, Op. 36 by Henryk Mikolaj Górecki (1976) is often mentioned in different contexts as one of the most original masterpieces of 20th-century music not only to come out of Poland, but from the world. This release presents the listener with a live recording of this extraordinary piece performed in the concert hall of the Poznan Philharmonic on 4 February, 1995. It is an outstanding artistic creation of Andrzej Boreyko, a conductor who was just about to launch his world career then, and Ewa Izykowska – one of the most interesting and versatile Polish singers.

These four works, written between 1973 and 1993, fully reflect Górecki’s expressive variety. The Little Requiem for a Certain Polka, for piano and thirteen instruments, combines a wide range of moods. The Concerto-Cantata, which received its world première from the soloist on this recording, alternates a moving vein of melancholy with a charged, violent energy. The radical, energetic Harpsichord Concerto is heard here in the version for piano, performed by the composer’s daughter. The Three Dances are hugely approachable and full of exciting contrast.

With the belated success of his Third Symphony ‘Symphony of Sorrowful Songs’ Gorecki emerged in the 1990s as a composer of world stature. Between 1988 and 1995 he wrote three string quartets for the Kronos Quartet that are among his most important mature works. String Quartet No. 1 reveals chorale-like themes, so much a feature of his later writing, as well as hectic, dance-like motion, while the Second Quartet’s wider range of expression explicitly evokes Beethoven. Genesis I: Elementi offers a powerful contrast- a string trio from 1962 of uncompromising immediacy. The Tippett Quartet appear regularly at King’s Place, the Purcell Room, Wigmore Hall, the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Bridgewater Hall, and perform regularly on BBC Radio 3. They have performed at the BBC Proms and toured Europe, Canada and Mexico. Their broad and diverse repertoire highlights the Tippett Quartet’s unique versatility. Their impressive catalogue of recordings has been released across several labels to universal acclaim and with classical chart-topping success.

Gorecki creates pieces where the flute and the piano can and do speak with one voice. Over time, this narrative also includes soprano and percussion, and the resulting contemplative and elegiac character of the entire programme fits into the 10th anniversary of Gorecki's death and turns the entire album into a kind of a farewell ritual of that outstanding composer. This music is about passing away. In Gorecki's raw sounds, there is a life that slowly fades away with each subsequent step and each subsequent breath. The title goodbye Goodnight touches us with its fragility, but it does not deprive us of hope.

You might remember Polish composer Henryk Górecki's best-known work for voice and orchestra, 1976's Third Symphony ("Symphony of Sorrowful Songs"). After all, David Zinman's recording for Nonesuch with soprano Dawn Upshaw raced to the top of the classical and pop charts when it was first released in 1992. It might be tempting to understand Górecki by that singular success; in the case of the Second Symphony and Beatus vir, you wouldn't be too far off base. The Symphony No. 2 "Copernican" was written four years before the Third Symphony; Beatus vir was written in 1979. Both works call for voice and orchestra (as well as mixed choir). By the late 1960s, the composer already had settled into a signature aesthetic that many came to know in the Third Symphony: a lone voice floating over a murmuring pulse, thunderous blows of percussion, massive blocks of orchestral chords, and religiously oriented texts. (The Beatus vir text comes from the Psalms; the Second Symphony, following the work's subtitle, uses the astronomer's own words in praise of God, taken from De revolutionibus orbium coelestium.)


For better or worse (depending on your response to the Symphony No. 3), Górecki's compositional language in these two pieces will be quite familiar. If you find Górecki a compelling artistic voice--and I do--then these performances will be a worthy addition to your library, if not quite as emotionally harrowing an experience as Symphony No. 3. The ethnic connections on this Naxos release run deep: Copernicus was Polish, Beatus vir was commissioned by the Polish Pope, John Paul II (when he was still Cardinal of Cracow), and these artists, uniformly first-rate, are Polish as well. Baritone Andrzej Dobber turns between despondency and strength as the psalms call for, and soprano Zofia Kilanowicz has an appealingly warm tone. Antoni Wit has an admirable track record with Naxos, and this recording is another win for him. The sound is excellent: very focused and rich.
--Anastasia Tsioulcas, ClassicsToday.com

The origins of Sanctus Adalbertus Op. 71by Henryk Miko?aj Górecki and the way in which the work was brought to the public are very special. It was written in 1997 to commemorate the millennium of the martyr’s death of Saint Adalbert. It was to have been premiered that year during Pope John Paul II’s pilgrimage to Poland. These plans did not materialize, however, due to the composer’s illness. The autograph score of the oratorio was discovered in the Górecki archives by his son Miko?aj. On November 4, 2015, five years after the composer’s death, Sanctus Adalbertus had its world premiere at the ICE Congress Centre in Kraków, during a gala concert to mark the 70th anniversary of PWM Polish Music Publishers. The composition is often referred to as ‘the big Adalbert’, following ‘the small Adalbert’, the cantata Salve sidus Polonorum Op. 72 (2000), whose material is based on the third movement of Sanctus Adalbertus. In writing Sanctus Adalbertus, Górecki used the Book of Psalms and his own texts, in Polish, Latin and Czech. As the outstanding expert on Górecki Adrian Thomas, observed, the oratorio’s musical material contains “references both to Edward Elgar’s late--Romantic style and to the relic of Polish early music, the medieval chant ‘Bogurodzica’ (Mother of God).” According to Thomas, Sanctus Adalbertus is a natural successor to Beatus vir (1979), Górecki’s psalm for baritone, choir and orchestra. Both are scored for almost identical forces, with a soprano part added to Sanctus Adalbertus. Beatus vir was written in praise of St Stanislaus (Stanis?aw in Polish), the Bishop of Kraków, who died a martyr’s death. The two compositions were part of Górecki’s plan of a cycle of works on Polish saints, which is said to have included also an oratorio devoted to Saint Maksymilian Maria Kolbe, a martyr of Auschwitz.

The Sonata for Two Violins is one of Henryk Gorecki’s earliest acknowledged works- its contrasts, instrumental rivalries and sophisticated technique a worthy rounding-off of his formative period. The Third String Quartet with its evocative subtitle ‘… songs are sung’ represents a culmination of Gorecki’s preoccupations with elaborate and emotive melodic shapes and closely intertwined harmonies, its final minutes recalling the beauty and poignancy of the composer’s Third Symphony. The First and Second String Quartets can be heard on Naxos as well: “a recording deserving of the very highest recommendation.” (Gramophone).