Pozegnanie, Henryk Gorecki
World-renowned Polish composer Henryk Gorecki, “whose early avant-garde style gave way to more approachable works rooted in his country’s folk songs and sacred music and whose Symphony No. 3 — an extended lamentation subtitled Symphony of Sorrowful Songs — sold more than a million copies on CD in the 1990s, died on Friday in Katowice, Poland. He was 76.”
November 12th, 2010 at 10:03 pm
A great loss. Brilliant composer.
November 12th, 2010 at 10:12 pm
A good example to me of how pop(ularity) doesn’t equal pap. The Dawn Upshaw recording still destroys me almost 20 years later.
November 13th, 2010 at 8:39 am
was just listening to him (and dawn upshaw) the other day. he is brilliant and reminds me of music that no matter how much one can introduce these wonderful works through the ages, this era is so exceedingly complacent and filled with plagiarism that will never give rise to truly great works again — in the number of those who were prolific beyond the ever so drab and flaccid tool of the western hemisphere at present.
November 13th, 2010 at 11:22 pm
Heartbroken to hear he’s gone. Introduced a friend(who was blown away) to his music 4 nights before he died
November 17th, 2010 at 5:53 am
This is the perfect piece for this post. I don’t know many in my age group who know of Gorecki, which, like his death, is a very sad shame.
November 17th, 2010 at 7:11 pm
Thank you for the sad news. I’m from Poland and from you I found out about this loss. I love Gorecki, although I can listen to it only from time to time, when it’s time for it. The title of your post: POEGNANIE should actually be POZEGNANIE (farewell). But it doesn’t matter. This is a great music and I’m glad he is quite known in the world. DZIEKUJE (thank you)
November 22nd, 2010 at 2:25 am
Awww. Thanks, Pawel. How odd… the accent above the z made the z in “Pozegnanie” disappear in the title. Have just replaced it with an unaccented z, thanks! :)
November 22nd, 2010 at 9:59 am
Very beautiful, I wasn’t familiar with him until now sadly.