Górecki: Polish Spirituals

With support from the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and Polish Cultural Institute, we produced a tour in November 2011 by the Polish Radio Choir in a tribute programme to the late and great Henryk Górecki, a year after his death. The project was presented by Durham Cathedral, Kings Place (London), St George’s (Bristol), and at St George’s Liverpool by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. Adrian Thomas introduced the programme, and also took part in a special broadcast for BBC Radio 3’s The Choir. Henryk Mikołaj Górecki gained international acclaim with his haunting Symphony No.3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs), its 1992 Elektra-Nonesuch recording selling more than a million copies and staying at the top of the US Classical Charts for 38 weeks. His choral music is filled with the same distinctively spiritual lyricism and spontaneous human warmth, celebrating his Polish roots and Catholic faith.

Henryk Górecki

“Everyone has their birthplace, some stretch of land. I don’t regret I was born here – it is a land of great beauty. … I can feel these genes. For me, music is a result of religious concentration and meditation. To see clear water, green grass, healthy woods, to breathe the fresh air. To see the Maker of it all – and write for Him.”

“It would be impossible to imagine it better performed… the Polish Radio Choir delivered their music with articulate ferocity”

Tim Ashley

The Guardian, reviewing the choir’s performance with Penderecki in Canterbury.

“There is no one who can replace Henryk Górecki in the world of music. Many others have created beautiful, passionate, even exalted music. But Henryk found a way forward and beyond, through thickets of styles and fashions, that resonates of the single human being in communion with the power of the universe”

David Harrington

Kronos Quartet

Programme to include:

Totus Tuus (1987), Three Lullabies (1984), Broad Waters (1979), Song of the Katyn Families (2004), Come Holy Spirit (1986), Amen (1975)

Links:

The Guardian

Polish Music Information Centre

ADAM MICKIEWICZ INSTITUTE

Polska Music

Polish Cultural Institute

Polish Professionals in London

Sounds:

Totus Tuus