- Performer: Nikita Storojev
- Orchestra: Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
- Conductor: John Nelson
- Composer: Henryk Mikolaj Górecki
- Audio CD (11 May 1993)
- Number of Discs: 1
- Label: Argo
- ASIN: B0000012UB
- Other Editions: MP3 Download
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 194,345 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Old Polish Music is a staggering piece of music. Consider that is was written as a partiotic piece while Poland was under the grip of communism. With that thought in mind, it is easy to imagine the dismay of the authorities as the strident, clear, hopeful, victorious? trumpet fanfares ring out. Old it may be, but i suspect that it was embarced by many young Poles in defiance of the grey facelessness of communism.
Beatus Vir is defiant in its own way. It begins no less energetically, and continues in this vein for some time, intoning, "Domine" like the Psalmist crying out to God, or like a persecuted and beaten believer who has nothing to cling on to except the name of the Lord and hope.
This - like so much of Gorecki's music - is not background stuff. It demands your attention, time, and a decent hi-fi to play it on.
Beatus Vir is defiant in its own way. It begins no less energetically, and continues in this vein for some time, intoning, "Domine" like the Psalmist crying out to God, or like a persecuted and beaten believer who has nothing to cling on to except the name of the Lord and hope.
This - like so much of Gorecki's music - is not background stuff. It demands your attention, time, and a decent hi-fi to play it on.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
jaw dropping
28 Sep 2007
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
If Maestro John Nelson did not exist, he would have to be invented as a matter of the highest artistic urgency. How else would the rest of us become acquainted with the new or little-known music that is so often recorded under his baton?
Take, for example, the Polish composer Henry Mikolaj Gorecki's 'Beatus Vir', 'Totus Tuus', and Old Polish Music. The first of these are newer creations of a very Catholic Poland, redolent of biblical and Roman Catholic piety embedded in the brooding harmonies of Old Poland.
Nelson allows the brooding to occur with a capital 'B' in what is simply profoundly gorgeous music. Gorecki excels at easing out of repetition all the transcendent meaning that it contains, aided in this task by Nikita Storojev's canyon-esque bass. Under Nelson's command, both orchestra and choir swell at just the right Slavic moments. Simply put, this is jaw-dropping music meant to be listened to at considerable volume.
Old Polish Music is a stirring surprise, in part because there is so little old about it. Old themes are reworked substantially and set to, among other things, some startling writing for brass.
This reviewer is rarely stopped dead in his tracks by the sheer awesome beauty of a little-known work. The three Gorecki creations on this disk all do the stopping.
It would be impossible to exaggerate the loss to the Western canon that was absorbed in having tarried so long in making Gorecki's acquaintance, nor the joy of the feast now that the fast has been broken.
Buy this album.
Take, for example, the Polish composer Henry Mikolaj Gorecki's 'Beatus Vir', 'Totus Tuus', and Old Polish Music. The first of these are newer creations of a very Catholic Poland, redolent of biblical and Roman Catholic piety embedded in the brooding harmonies of Old Poland.
Nelson allows the brooding to occur with a capital 'B' in what is simply profoundly gorgeous music. Gorecki excels at easing out of repetition all the transcendent meaning that it contains, aided in this task by Nikita Storojev's canyon-esque bass. Under Nelson's command, both orchestra and choir swell at just the right Slavic moments. Simply put, this is jaw-dropping music meant to be listened to at considerable volume.
Old Polish Music is a stirring surprise, in part because there is so little old about it. Old themes are reworked substantially and set to, among other things, some startling writing for brass.
This reviewer is rarely stopped dead in his tracks by the sheer awesome beauty of a little-known work. The three Gorecki creations on this disk all do the stopping.
It would be impossible to exaggerate the loss to the Western canon that was absorbed in having tarried so long in making Gorecki's acquaintance, nor the joy of the feast now that the fast has been broken.
Buy this album.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Compelling Works by Henryk Górecki
27 May 2011
Format:Audio CD
John Nelson and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the Prague Philharmonic Choir with bass-baritone Nikita Storojew have recorded the Górecki 'Beatus Vir' a work based on the Psalms dedicated to Holy Father John Paul II in 1979. It remains a work of great majesty and power despite the 'condensed' music form employed. It is a powerful opening to this three part recording that continues with 'Totus Tuus' ('Totally Yours') written in 1987 for unaccompanied mixed choir. The libretto was taken from a poem written by contemporary writer Maria Boguslawska which is addressed to the Virgin Mary, the patron saint of Poland. Górecki composed the piece to celebrate Pope John Paul II's third pilgrimage to his native Poland that summer, and the work remains his best-known, if not critically acclaimed, a cappella choral piece of the 1980s. The work was first performed in on June 14, 1987 at a High Mass held in Victory Square, Warsaw by the Choir of the Warsaw Academy of Catholic Theology.
Górecki has a manner in writing for the voice that demands respect. His choral writing is dense and succeeds in reaching high spiritual realms with the least amount of change in the spectrum of writing. Likewise his writing for the solo voice as part of the orchestral or choral fabric is restrained and all the more deeply moving because of it. Example: the Los Angeles Philharmonic as conducted by Gustavo Dudamel are currently performing the Symphony No. 3, 'of sorrowful songs' with the radiant Jessica Rivera as soloist. She is placed in the center of the darkened orchestra, seemingly as simply another instrumentalist until she stands and sings the heartrending poetry of the symphony. The effect is breathtaking and reminds us once again of the importance of the recently deceased Henryk Górecki in the history of music.
This recording closes with the far too rarely performed 'Old Polish Music' which is written for strings and brass. It is exuberant and celebratory and allows us to hear purely orchestral music form this great polish master. Grady Harp, May 11
Górecki has a manner in writing for the voice that demands respect. His choral writing is dense and succeeds in reaching high spiritual realms with the least amount of change in the spectrum of writing. Likewise his writing for the solo voice as part of the orchestral or choral fabric is restrained and all the more deeply moving because of it. Example: the Los Angeles Philharmonic as conducted by Gustavo Dudamel are currently performing the Symphony No. 3, 'of sorrowful songs' with the radiant Jessica Rivera as soloist. She is placed in the center of the darkened orchestra, seemingly as simply another instrumentalist until she stands and sings the heartrending poetry of the symphony. The effect is breathtaking and reminds us once again of the importance of the recently deceased Henryk Górecki in the history of music.
This recording closes with the far too rarely performed 'Old Polish Music' which is written for strings and brass. It is exuberant and celebratory and allows us to hear purely orchestral music form this great polish master. Grady Harp, May 11
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