Amazon.co.uk allows you to pay for your items in your local currency. Restrictions apply. Learn More. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s
Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or
view the MP3 Album.
|
Product Description
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
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
26 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
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.
36 of 37 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
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.
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.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This is one of my all time favourite pieces of music. I first heard it in the bath, and I got out dripping wet to switch on the tape recorder to make sure that I found out what it was and who it was by!
I find it incredibly powerful and moving. I'm not a technical music person, so I can't tell you what is happening in the piece. All I can tell you is that my heart soars and my soul is moved.
Listening to the samples on amazon may not give you the full feel of it as they are quite short, and the piece unfolds and builds up slowly. Borrow it from a friend or the library to see if you like it.
Marvellous
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
A musical performance to soothe the soul!
Of course, everyone is far from being objective when commenting on all kinds of cultural (musical) expressions. So my recommendation to listen to this cd is also personal. Read more
Published 23 days ago by Rafa
Wonderful music
A CD to treasure . The music is very moving and everyone who has listened to it has committed on how wonderful the music is. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Lizzie
2 out of 3 ain't bad
I bought this CD on the strength of the second and third tracks (Tranquillissimo and Cantabile-Semplice), which I have heard regularly on the radio. Read more
Published 2 months ago by debhenri
GORECKI.
This album is one of the best albums i have ever heard. The haunting music, and the superb voice of Dawn Upshaw are amazing. Buy this album to see what i mean.
Published 3 months ago by J. Evans
The Painful symphony
You can bouth touch the pain and the sorroeness in the voice of the darkes time in the humans history. I love this work! If you love these kind of music, this for you. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Torbjørn Lygre
music
Heard this music in the film Ripleys Game and could not forget it. My husband and I have found it very moving and also beautiful even though it came from such a terrible time in... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Taylord
Gorecki Symphony N0 3 Sorrowful Songs
I would say that this album CD of Gorecki Symphony N0 3 Sorrowful songs would not be to everybody s taste but I think it's very moving music and some what sad but I like this... Read more
Published 18 months ago by printman
Wonderful
I have heard snippets of this piece on the radio but chanced upon a film about it on BBC4 and was spellbound. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Sidamere
Great service
Bought this for my wife and she loves to listen to it.
Haunting collection but not surprising given the background to the writing of this music. Read more
Haunting collection but not surprising given the background to the writing of this music. Read more
Published 21 months ago by IKB
Wonderful Stuff
I picked this recording up at an absolute bargain price and admit that I had never heard of Gorecki's Symphony No 3. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Mr. A. Whiteside
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
