Henryk Górecki: Chronological Collection

When the Zinman/Upshaw recording of Polish composer Henryk Górecki's Symphony of Sorrowful Songs was released in 1992, it reached No. 6 of the UK album chart; stayed at the top of Billboard classical chart for 38 weeks; and sold over 1 million copies worldwide. Sorrowfully, this success has failed to generate interest in Górecki's other works.

Personally I adore that symphony, and also found many of his other works absorbing: Amen, Beatus Vir, and Totus Tuus are all music of sweeping power and beauty; late works like Kleines Requiem for a Polka and the three String Quartets (No.1, 2, 3) are also fresh and distinctive.

This playlist features all Górecki's recorded works available; sorted in chronological order. From op. 1 (1955) to op. 75 (1999), plus one unnumbered piece Three Dances in Old Style (1963). For Symphony No.3 I used the Zinman recording. The composer's own favorite: Wlodzimierz Kamirski conducting the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin with soprano Stefania Woytowicz, is hard to find in the west and not on Spotify, though another recording featuring the soprano, and the conductor who premiered the symphony with her, is on Spotify US.

Get this collection in one Spotify playlist here: Henryk Górecki: Chronological Collection (83 tracks from 23 albums, total time: 10 hours) Ctrl (CMD) + G to browse in album view.

In another playlist Pop Songs Based On Classical Works, you can find Lamb's 1997 single Górecki, a minor trip-hop classic which quoted the 2nd movement of the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs.

The Polish Composers On Spotify

R.I.P. Mr. Lech Aleksander Kaczyńsk. Terrible news. I don't know his politics but Poland is a country I always admire. Krzysztof Kieślowski's The Decalogue is probably my favourite film, and aside from being the homeland of Chopin, Poland has also offered many other great composers from Szymanowski, Górecki to Penderecki.

Here's the Spotify playlist: The Polish Composers (508 tracks, 2.2 days) It consists of Polish composers works and sorted by composers alphabetically. I didn't want to put Chopin here as I have done a Chopin playlist before, but Chopin is still everywhere in this playlist, Godowsky's Chopin arrangements, Josef Hofmann, and some other Polish composer-pianist plays Chopin, including Polański's Pianist Władysław Szpilman playing the A minor Mazurka. At the end there's two compilations: Polish Chamber Music and The Polish Heart.

May the Polish people find the strength in faith and all the great art that they created to get through this tragedy.