Górecki - one of the most prominent 20th-century composers, whose 90th birth anniversary fell on December 6 - spent the best part of his life in Katowice, and died there on November 12, 2010.
The Górecki Marathon, which began at 10.00 am and will last until midnight, includes a wide selection of his works from the 1956 Sonatina for violin and piano Op. 8 to Valentine piece for flute and little bell Op. 70, one of his last compositions, penned in 1996.
The event’s highlight is the performance of Górecki’s iconic Third Symphony, subtitled Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. Written in the mid-1970s, two decades later, thanks to a recording by the London Sinfonietta and American soprano Dawn Upshaw, the work achieved unprecedented international success, topping charts worldwide and becoming one of the most beloved pieces of classical music of the modern era.
Saturday’s performance of Górecki’s Third Symphony is by the Silesian Philharmonic conducted by Ukraine’s Yaroslaw Shemet, who, at 25, serves as the orchestra’s music director, and internationally acclaimed Ukrainian soprano Olga Bezsmertna. The concert coincides with the launch of a new CD featuring the Third Symphony recorded by the same orchestra under the same conductor, with Polish soprano Iwona Sobotka.
Earlier this year, Górecki’s Third Symphony was given a staged performance by the English National Opera, which described the work on its website at the time as “a meaningful meditation on motherhood, love and loss”, in which “a single soprano voice paints a tryptic of motherhood; first a lament of the Virgin Mary, the second a message written on the wall of a concentration camp, and the third a mother searching for her lost son”.
The programme of the Górecki Marathon comprises also the launch of a popular monograph on his life and work by Polish musicologist Beata Bolesławska-Lewandowska, exhibitions and a meeting with composer Eugeniusz Knapik, one of Górecki’s former students.
(mk/mm)