SearchsearchUseruser

Gorecki: III Symfonia - Gorecki

Gorecki: III Symfonia - Gorecki

Polskie Radio  PRSACD2

Stereo/Multichannel Hybrid

Classical - Orchestral


Gorecki: Symphony No. 3 "Symphony of sorrowful Songs"

Zofia Kilanowicz (soprano)
National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Henryk Mikolaj Gorecki (conductor)

Support this site by purchasing from these vendors using the paid links below.
As an Amazon Associate HRAudio.net earns from qualifying purchases.

 
bol.com
 
 
 

Add to your wish list | library

 

2 of 2 recommend this, would you recommend it?  yes | no

All
show
Recording
show
hide
Live recording on 14.12.2003 from the Holy Cross Church in Zakopane
Comments (7)
show
hide

Comment by onenairb - February 14, 2017 (1 of 7)

This is a live concert conducted by Mr Gorecki himself. In fact, it is the only available performance I know of, which Gorecki conducts. It was recorded in the Holy Cross Church in Zakopane, Poland, in December 2003. Why? Well the second song of the symphony is based around words that were scratched on the basement wall of the Villa Palace in Zakopane, the Gestapo headquaters during the German occupation, hence the venue for the concert. They are a letter/words to the mother of an 18 year old girl who was imprisoned and tortured for helping the Polish resistance. Apparently they have now been removed/plastered over by the present owners of the Villa.

This is a hybrid SACD in 5.1. Both the CD stereo and the SACD 5.1 layers are excellent as are the performances. The soprano, Zofia Kilanowicz, is superb and being a live recording shows so much passion in her singing which is sometime lost in the studio IMHO. The orchestra delivers a very well controlled performance under the direction of Gorecki.

Sonically I have nothing to complain about. The double basses are magnificent at setting the ambience for the performance. Then the strings, piano and soprano. There is some very low bass from the orchestra that I have not experienced in other recordings.

The 3rd Symphony is one of my favourite peices. If you are a fan of Gorecki's 3rd Symphony you will love this.

I should also mention that there is a DVD (same cover, Dolby 5.1 in colour) and Blu-ray (different cover, video in black and white, 24/192 Stereo and 24/96 5.1 surround) of the same concert which also contains a film of Gorecki talking about the history of his 3rd Symphony, the three sorrowful songs, and his love of Chopin.

Highly recommended SACD and if you can get the DVD or Blu-ray, do so.

Comment by hiredfox - February 18, 2017 (2 of 7)

You are very lucky indeed to have found a copy of this recording which has for long been OOP. I have searched for years on e-Bay without success.

'tailspn' was the first to draw attention to its merits well over a decade ago on SA-CD.net since when there has been no new recording on SACD. I have the other one which is quite good but have no way of knowing how it compares with this.

After it's brief period of popularity back in the 1980/90 period the work seems to have disappeared without trace in the concert hall or on air. It is undeniably bleak and bold would be the concert programmer who arranged a live performance today.

Comment by onenairb - March 8, 2020 (3 of 7)

I think the rights to this recording are owned by Andrew Lipinski.
This recording and the other 3 SACD releases from Polskie Radio were supposed to be up for re-elease by Lipinski (http://lipinskiroyalfidelity.com/store/) but as far as I know they never were.
Tried contacting them on a few occasions in the past about the re-release but never got a reply.

Comment by Kal Rubinson - January 15, 2023 (4 of 7)

I have copies of the Gorecki, Penderecki and Kilar SACDs but I cannot find any record of prior sales to help me in pricing them. Is there someplace to find such information other than Discogs and eBay?

Comment by hiredfox - January 19, 2023 (5 of 7)

That's about it Kal. There are no catalogues of prices of OOP SACD as far as I know. e-Bay would seem to be the best place to advertise, suggest a price and consider offers. Amazon is another.

Comment by Tony Reif - January 25, 2023 (6 of 7)

Both Popsike and Worthpoint list prices realized for recordings. The latter seems to have a lot more SACD listings, but you have to join ($27/month).

Comment by diw - January 28, 2023 (7 of 7)

I've got this disc