MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

alternatively
CD: MDT AmazonUK AmazonUS

Henryk GÓRECKI (1933-2010)
Kleines Requiem für eine Polka, Op. 66 (1993) [23:38]
Lerchenmusik, Op. 53 (1984-86) [43:21]
Schönberg Ensemble/Reinbert de Leeuw (Requiem)
Harmen de Boer (clarinet), Larissa Groeneveld (cello), Reinbert de Leeuw (piano) (Lerchenmusik)
rec. November 1993, Amsterdam. DDD
NEWTON CLASSICS 8802060 [66:59]

Experience Classicsonline


It is well known that Henryk Górecki received worldwide fame practically overnight with the 1992 release on Nonesuch of his Symphony No. 3. The artists were the London Sinfonietta under David Zinman with Dawn Upshaw as soprano soloist and they were recorded in May 1991.
 
Though he composed the symphony as long ago as 1976, he was little known outside his native Poland until that rather freak occurrence. While he is probably still best known today for that symphony, the two works on the CD under review are far more typical of the composer’s style. The first of these, the Kleines Requiem, is the best place for a listener who knows only the Third Symphony to gain a real appreciation of Górecki’s music. The symphony with its three successive slow movements is very static in nature. The Requiem contrasts the static (first and last movements) with the dynamic (second and third). As Bernard Jacobson suggests in his very illuminating notes, the influence of Messiaen on Górecki with his contrasts of loud and soft is very apparent in both works. Jacobson also mentions Bartók and Janáček as composers who have similarities to Górecki, the latter in the use of incisive and lively rhythmic patterns. I hear a greater likeness to one of Górecki’s direct contemporaries, the Georgian Giya Kancheli whose music often emphasizes sudden dynamic contrasts.
 
Whereas much of Górecki’s music is very dark and serious, the Kleines Requiem für eine Polka contains humorous elements. This is notable in the third movement which is in fact a catchy polka. The work begins very quietly with the piano playing a simple tune with tubular bells accompanying softly. The violins enter with a melody over the piano. After about five minutes, the music suddenly gets loud but soon retreats to its earlier mood with the piano’s simple tune with bells. It ends quietly. The second movement breaks in without a pause and is loud and agitated with brass taking the lead. Then comes the comic polka led by the strings and winds with the piano playing the polka rhythm. The last movement returns to the quiet of the first with a bell sounding before the strings play a lyrical hymn. The bell and piano are in the background until the horn adds a quiet solo to the mix. It continues thus until near the end when the piano and distant bells make a passing reference to the opening of the first movement. Górecki composed the work for the performers on this disc, so one may justifiably call this recording authoritative. It is certainly well performed by the thirteen members of the ensemble, which includes flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, percussion, two violins, viola, cello and double bass. Of all the Górecki I’ve heard I find this the most interesting, as it does not outstay its welcome.
 
Lerchenmusik for clarinet, cello, and piano, on the other hand, can try one’s patience. It is nearly twice as long as the Requiem but lacks the sheer variety of the other work. It comprises three movements, each basically in a slow tempo. The first movement begins quietly in the lower register of the cello and for the first six minutes or so it remains quiet. Then the piano explodes with a series of loud incessantly repeated birdcalls over the cello - all very reminiscent of Messiaen. A couple of minutes later there is a new, loud pattern taken up by the clarinet. This also repeats and then combines with the birdcalls. The movement ends quietly and one is relieved that it is over. The second movement features the clarinet with a solo in the beginning that builds slowly until it too becomes loud and nearly unbearable. Luckily, the piano takes over later and the movement ends quietly. The three instruments come together in the finale with the piano playing repeated chords similar to those in the first movement of Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto. However, after about a minute of quiet chords, the music gets loud and there are more insistent avian noises. These alternate with the quiet chords and make this movement easier to digest than the others. There is a particularly beautiful passage starting at 3:36, where the Beethovenian repeated chords on the piano over a sustained cello line create a hymn-like atmosphere. And so it continues for some fifteen minutes with the quiet even restful music alternating with louder pounding chords on the piano. At one point Górecki quotes Beethoven directly, before the clarinet enters with a songful passage accompanied by cello and piano. The music dies away quietly, with the piano playing softly in a high register. Like the other work on the disc, one cannot imagine a better performance than the one here.
 
If you are a fan of Górecki, you will not need my recommendation. If, however, you have not been exposed to much of his music or only the Third Symphony, you may want to try another recording of the Kleines Requiem. David Zinman and the London Sinfonietta recorded it for Nonesuch, a disc that also contains the short and attractive Harpsichord Concerto, and the work entitled “Good Night” for soprano, alto flute, 5 tam-tams, and piano, with Dawn Upshaw as soloist. That disc perhaps offers the best sampling of Górecki’s music beyond the Third Symphony. The performances are as good as any, including the one of the Kleines Requiem on the present disc. Incidentally, the main theme in the Third Symphony’s first movement is rather similar to the one in the second movement of Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet. I have not read anywhere that Górecki intentionally borrowed it from Shostakovich.
 
One further note on the present disc: this is a reissue of material originally appearing on the Philips label and is offered at budget cost. The entire production, including Bernard Jacobson’s invaluable notes, is fully up to the standards of a full-priced CD. The timings on the back of the case, though, are inaccurate and I have listed the correct ones in the head-note above.
 
Leslie Wright 

 


 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.