GÓRECKI Symphony No 3
Górecki’s Third, three decades on from its emancipation
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Henryk Górecki
Genre:
Orchestral
Label: Sony Classical
Magazine Review Date: 11/2012
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 55
Mastering:
Stereo
DDD
Catalogue Number: 88697966242
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Symphony No. 3, 'Symphony of Sorrowful Songs' |
Henryk Górecki, Composer
Danish National Symphony Orchestra Henryk Górecki, Composer Isabel Bayrakdarian, Singer, Soprano John Axelrod, Conductor |
Author: Rob Cowan
This is in essence a tragic symphony that ends with a ray of optimism; it has relatively recent history as a traumatic subtext, even though the composer denied it was any sort of threnody, and there is certainly room for more than one view of it, one where smooth contours are less important than tonal weight and a certain ‘edge’. While John Axelrod and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra honour the work’s slowly unwinding structure, they’re not afraid to underline certain expressive elements, the very end being a fair case in point, which glows to a radiant forte.
Isabel Bayrakdarian is very different to Upshaw, more obviously operatic in style and Slavic in sound, and those who are used to the earlier recording might baulk at her relatively wide vibrato under pressure. In that respect, Upshaw has the steadiness of Marni Nixon (of West Side Story and My Fair Lady fame, not to mention Stravinsky, Schoenberg and Webern), which may help explain why her version took flight so easily. But this new version, like Antoni Wit’s CD on Naxos, is excellent in its own way and the sound has plenty of amplitude.
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