Henryk
Gorecki

Henryk Mikołaj Górecki (1933 – 2010) debuted in 1958 with the first monographic concert in the history of the State Higher School of Music in Katowice, two years before his official graduation. In the fall of the same year, his Epitafium for choir and instrumental ensemble premiered successfully at the Warsaw Autumn festival. The piece was commissioned for the festival by the conductor Andrzej Markowski. In 1959, the Warsaw Autumn festival hosted a partial premiere of Górecki’s first large-scale composition: Symphony No. 1 “1959,” Op. 14. The full premiere of this radically modernist composition—for which he received first prize at the second Paris Youth Biennale in 1961—took place in Darmstadt at the Summer Course for New Music in 1963.

Górecki’s innovative aesthetic position gained him recognition as a leading figure of the Polish avant-garde, and this status was confirmed by Scontri, Op. 17, which premiered at Warsaw Autumn in 1960. The piece remains a highlight of his avant-garde period. It is regarded as one of the most significant works of Polish music from the 1960s. Although Górecki’s Monologhi, Op. 16 for soprano and three groups of instruments won first prize at the third National Competition for Young Composers in 1960, organized by the Polish Composers’ Union, its premiere did not take place until April 1968 in West Berlin.

The serialist Monologhi was performed by Joan Caroll (soprano) and Ensemble für Neue Music Freiburg under Arghyris Kounadis. Despite his brilliant debut at a young age and his consequent presence at Warsaw Autumn, Górecki did not establish the international presence of his music until the premiere of Monologhi in West Berlin. He was introverted by nature and, as his biographer Adrian Thomas notes, his output was neither huge nor easily programmed. In 1969 Górecki received an invitation to spend a year in Berlin within the framework of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program, but did not take up the invitation until 1973. The composer had been recommended to Peter Nestler, the director of the Artists-in-Berlin Program, by Otto Tomek, the music director of Westdeutscher Rundfunk in Cologne, who regularly attended Warsaw Autumn and believed in the quality of Górecki’s work. During his stay in Berlin, Górecki suffered a kidney illness; he was hospitalized and underwent surgery. This period of illness hindered his composing progress and added to his already poor health. It also explains why Górecki completed only one orchestral piece between 1973 and 1974: Trzy tańce (Three Dances), Op. 34. During his stay in Berlin, however, he did start working on his next large-scale project: “Symfonia pieśni żałosnych” (Third Symphony, ‘Symphony of Sorrowful Songs’), Op. 36, which would later become an international sensation and one of the most recognized compositions of the twentieth century. Górecki imagined the piece as an orchestral song cycle or song symphony. Shortly before he left for Berlin, he had started collecting textual and melodic material for his composition.

In Berlin, he shared his artistic plans with a friend from Baden-Baden Symphony Orchestra and soon received an official commission from Südwestfunk Baden-Baden to write the piece. The symphony premiered at the Royan Festival in 1977, but was condemned by German critics for its minimalist simplicity and radical departure from Western avant-gardism. 

Text: Monika Żyła