Henryk Górecki - Symphony No. 3 (David Zinman)

Information

Composer: Henryk Górecki

1. Symphony No. 3 "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs": I. Lento - Sostenuto tranquillo ma cantabile
2. Symphony No. 3 "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs": II. Lento e Largo - Tranquillissimo
3. Symphony No. 3 "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs": III. Lento - Cantablile-semplice

Dawn Upshaw, soprano
London Sinfonietta
David Zinman, conductor

Date: 1992
Label: Nonesuch
http://www.nonesuch.com/albums/gorecki-symphony-no-3

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Review

The Symphony of Sorrowful Songs first appeared on a Koch Schwann LP in the mid-70s and circulated quietly, impressing those who knew it but not stimulating the kind of response it has done nearly two decades later. It is that recording that is the latest to appear on CD, on the same label: that marvellous soprano Stefania Woytowicz appears with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Wlodzimierz Kamirski. For years it seemed, to western audiences at least, that the music was Woytowicz's alone: nothing came along to challenge her. But it was the American soprano Dawn Upshaw who started the Górecki ball rolling with the first recording to appear on CD, on Elektra Nonesuch, and this is the version that has headed the classical charts. It was recently joined by another Woytowicz recording, more recent, and better filled, on Olympia. All three recordings have obvious qualities, which makes the choice between them far from clear-cut. First, Woytowicz's first recording, made in 1976. Her voice is glorious: rich, dignified, austere, with a wide vibrato that doesn't trouble the listener one whit, and I have often wondered she isn't better known. Kamirski's orchestral contribution is tight and unindulgent (and with textures as broad as these, Romantic breadth could be a problem); it may even be a bit tight, for he is a full eight minutes quicker than David Zinman on Elektra Nonesuch. In her second recording Woytowicz's voice isn't quite the instrument it was: musically as responsive to the music as ever, it is nonethless showing wear, with some distinct fraying at the edges; the Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra of Katowice is conducted by Jerzy Katlewicz, who is only two minutes swifter than Zinman. The Olympia CD is withal the best filled: the simple but affecting Three Pieces in Olden Style for strings (1963) that feature on the Koch CD can also be found here, conducted on both by Karol Teutsch (for Olympia in 1970, for Koch twelve years later), but joined by the closely focussed Amen for chorus that Górecki composed in 1975, just before the Third Symphony. Both Woytowciz versions contrast strongly with Upshaw and Zinman, who conducts the London Sinfonietta. Upshaw has a purer tone, less individual and therefore less intrusively personal than her Polish rival. But the voice is not entirely reliable: it reminds me a bit of an old Simca that my parents used to drive – very smooth most of the time, but between 60 and 70mph the steering column would begin to shake rather. And when Upshaw has to hit a phrase with any kind of vehemence she loses her normal smoothness. The orchestral sound is very different, too. The power of the Berlin and Katowice full-orchestral versions gives way to a clarity of texture that they lack. You can hear things with Zinman and the Sinfonietta that you can't with the others – the piano chords just before the soprano's first entry, for example, tell here much more than elsewhere.

-- Martin Anderson, Classical Net

More reviews:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gorecki-Symphony-No-3-Dawn-Upshaw/dp/B000005J1C
http://www.amazon.com/Gorecki-Symphony-No-Opus-36/dp/B000005J1C

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Henryk Górecki (December 6, 1933 – November 12, 2010) was a Polish composer of contemporary classical music. Górecki was a leading figure of the Polish avant-garde during the post-Stalin cultural thaw. After composed serialist works in 1950s and 1960s, by the mid-1970s he changed to a less complex sacred minimalist sound, exemplified by the transitional Symphony No. 2 and the hugely popular Symphony No. 3. The 1992 recording of the 3th Symphony with Dawn Upshaw and David Zinman became a worldwide commercial and critical success, selling more than a million copies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henryk_G%C3%B3recki

***

David Zinman (born 9 July 1936 in New York City, United States) is an American conductor and violinist. He worked in Maine with Pierre Monteux from 1958 to 1962, serving as his assistant from 1961 to 1964. Zinman has been Music Director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Rochester Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony and Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, and Principal Conductor of the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and was Artistic Director of the Aspen Music Festival, where he created the International Conducting Academy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Zinman
http://www.davidzinman.org

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

FLAC, tracks

Links in comment

Enjoy!