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Gorecki - Symphony No.3: Sorrowful Songs
 
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Gorecki - Symphony No.3: Sorrowful Songs

~ Henryk Gorecki (Composer), David Zinman (Conductor), London Sinfonietta (Orchestra), Dawn Upshaw (Soprano)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
Price: £10.88 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Gorecki - Symphony No.3: Sorrowful Songs + Górecki: Symphony No.3 + Best Of Arvo Part
Price For All Three: £20.64

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  • This item: Gorecki - Symphony No.3: Sorrowful Songs ~ Henryk Gorecki

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    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

  • Górecki: Symphony No.3 ~ Joanna Koslowska

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  • Best Of Arvo Part ~ Arvo Part

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Product details

  • Orchestra: London Sinfonietta
  • Conductor: David Zinman
  • Composer: Henryk Gorecki
  • Audio CD (6 Jul 1992)
  • SPARS Code: DDD
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Label: Nonesuch
  • ASIN: B000005J1C
  • Other Editions: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 4,693 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

    Popular in these categories:

    #20 in  Music > Opera & Vocal > Song
    #22 in  Music > Classical Instrumental > Orchestral > Symphonies

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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.

Samples
Song Title Time Price
Listen  1. Symphony No. 3: I. Lento - Sostenuto Tranquillo Ma Cantabile26:47Album Only
Listen  2. Symphony No. 3: II. Lento E Largo - Tranquillissimo 9:45£0.69
Listen  3. Symphony No. 3: III. Lento - Cantablile Semplice17:09Album Only

On this CD:
  1. Symphony No. 3, 'Symphony of Sorrowful Songs'
    Composed by Henryk Górecki
    Performed by London Sinfonietta
    with Dawn Upshaw
    Conducted by David Zinman

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

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Customer Reviews

18 Reviews
5 star:
 (13)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (18 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A great performance of a masterpiece, 22 May 2005
By A Customer
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.
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Essential listening, 4 Jan 2007


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.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A spiritual odyssey from heartbreak to redemption, 17 Jul 2002
By Dobester (Istanbul, Turkey) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   
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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars the silence within
I find Henryk Gorecki's Symphony of Sorrowful Songs to be one of the most amazing pieces of classical music. Read more
Published 23 days ago by Deven Gadula

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly beuatiful
The soaring nature of this piece of music really gladdens the heart. it is pure beauty in aural form. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Half dead Fred

4.0 out of 5 stars Five stars for the music, four for the second best version I know
I leave on the assumption that you are familiar with the work and looking at different recordings. I started out with this famous recording featuring Dawn Upshaw which actually... Read more
Published 10 months ago by J. Severidt

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful
I can't judge this from a musicians point of view, or from anything apart from that this music connects with some bit inside of me that I can't explain in technical language... Read more
Published 20 months ago by F. Quinn

5.0 out of 5 stars You suffer more than these women, you die
This symphony is poignant because it is the lamentations of three women. It is so rare to have the direct lamentations of three women, of women as for that. Read more
Published on 26 April 2007 by Jacques COULARDEAU

5.0 out of 5 stars First Rate Service ...
I'm now listening to the second hand CD which arrved only 2 days after placing the order. Many thanks.
Published on 28 May 2005 by MR A H WALMSLEY

3.0 out of 5 stars good music good singer spoiled by cool conductor
This recording is one of many many examples where music suffers from choice of wrong tempo, despite awe-inspiring singing and excellent orchestra. Read more
Published on 25 Feb 2005

5.0 out of 5 stars A desert island disk!
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... Read more
Published on 31 Aug 2004 by catie_haqq

4.0 out of 5 stars Gorecki-Symphony #3-Dawn Upshaw
A novice to Gorecki & Dawn Upshaw, having been introduced to same by my music-graduate daughter, I have found this one of the most moving and evocative pieces I have heard in many... Read more
Published on 25 Aug 2004 by cadubh65

5.0 out of 5 stars Compassion in its most pure form!
In ways this is some of the most passionate and communicative music I've ever heard! There are composers more intricate in terms of the textures they employ, but here literally... Read more
Published on 7 Jul 2004

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