Composer

A Journey Through Joy, Beauty, and Deep Emotion 

Prepare for a concert that spans the spectrum of human experience, from exuberant celebration to profound reflection.

The evening begins with Leonard Bernstein’s Candide Overture—a lively, spirited opening that bursts with energy and optimism, setting the stage for a night of musical contrasts.

Next, experience the world of Kevin Lau’s Kimiko’s Pearl Symphonic Suite, a captivating 15-minute work that weaves together lush orchestral textures and delicate storytelling, transporting you to an evocative, mystical realm.

Songs of Hope and Sorrow

FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre

Górecki’s Three Pieces in Old Style opens this program, followed by harpist Yumiko Schlaffer performing Debussy’s Danse sacrée et danse profane. After intermission the orchestra performs Metamorphosen by Richard Struass; Richard McKay conducts.

EPSG:4326

Strauss: Metamorphosen

Moody Performance Hall

The Campus String Ensemble is comprised of non-music major students, faculty members, staff, and alumni of the University of Michigan.

Campus Orchestra String Ensemble

Earl V. Moore Building

2026 March Concert

University of New Orleans

From grief to glory, experience a symphony that moved the world.

From the depths of despair, a woman’s voice soars pure and free: ‘Oh, sing for him, God’s little songbirds / Since his mother cannot find him’. In 1976, when Henryk Górecki wrote his Third Symphony in Communist-occupied Poland, he was making a powerful statement of hope. He never imagined that his haunting ‘Symphony of Sorrowful Songs’ would become a global phenomenon, touching hearts on every continent. Tonight, its voice is the award-winning Polish soprano Iwona Sobotka.

Górecki’s Third Symphony

Southbank Centre

Old meets new in Górecki's Three Pieces in Old Style. Inspired by papers on old Polish music and heavily influenced by modal music combined with folk, these charming pieces encapsulate the sonorous charms of both Górecki's music and his writing for strings.

BBC NOW - Gloria

Brangwyn Hall

Juno Award winner, UNESCO Ambassador, and alumnus of The Royal Conservatory’s Glenn Gould School, Jan Lisiecki plays Preludes by Chopin, Bach, Messiaen, and Rachmaninov.

Jan Lisiecki, piano

The Royal Conservatory of Music

The great success of Polish mountain music – the concert has been a quiet success on international stages for years, inspiring genuine admiration, yet it always returns to Warsaw. The music of three outstanding Polish composers: Karol Szymanowski, Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, and Wojciech Kilar, is combined into a mountain musical spectacle. Szymanowski highly valued the voices of the Podhale region for, among other things, their "primordial wildness, the painstaking forging of shapes that don't sink hopelessly into the bloodless sea of ​​sentimentality, and finally, their innate vividness of imagination." Górecki's fascination with folklore extended further, as "from the mountains to the sea," as evidenced by the song collection " Wisło, szara Wisło ." Kilar, on the other hand, created "Orawa" – his greatest symphonic hit inspired by the Krzesana note. There will be a lot going on during the concert. Hey! Please leave your axes in the cloakroom.

Voices of the Mountains

Teatr Wielki - Polish National Opera

‘Perhaps people find something they need in this piece ... something they were missing.’ Henryk Górecki’s ‘Symphony of Sorrowful Songs’ translates a century’s loss and pain into sound, gathering up the broken pieces – of history, prayer and poetry – and giving them a home in music that’s as much requiem as a symphony. Joshua Bell is the soloist in Ukraine-born composer Thomas de Hartmann’s emotive, cinematic Violin Concerto, a lament for the Nazi destruction of his homeland. The concert opens with Respighi’s warmly expansive reworking of an organ chorale prelude by J. S. Bach.

Symphony of Sorrowful Songs

Royal Albert Hall

Our final concert is an exploration of sound and silence. Our friend Phillip Bimstein will host the evening, and our very own Charlotte Bell will transform the pre-concert talk into a meditation and listening workshop. Gorecki’s powerful Symphony no. 3 with soprano Melissa Heath will provide the main sonic exploration of the evening, a work I have hoped to conduct for a long time. Prepare for a meditative and moving night with the Salt Lake Symphony, a concert unlike ever you have experienced before!

Sound and Silence

University of Utah

As a precursor to the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the end of the war, this concert program will feature exclusively works by Polish composers as a tribute to the history and culture of our eastern neighbor. Almost 150 years lie between the creation of Chopin's early concert pieces for piano and orchestra and the symphonic poem "Krzesany" by Wojciech Kilar. What all three works have in common is their reference to Polish folklore. At the end of the program under the direction of Krzysztof Urbański is one of the most moving works of contemporary music, which many concertgoers will unconsciously or consciously recognize. In the early 1990s, the middle movement of Henryk Mikołaj Górecki's emotionally gripping 3rd Symphony became a favorite of radio stations and was also used frequently in films and series. The composition, entitled "Symphony of Lamentations", sets Polish texts about motherhood, love and loss to music, including a medieval Marian lament, an Upper Silesian folk song from the time of the Polish uprisings and, last but not least, a prayer written on the wall in the basement of the Gestapo headquarters in Zakopane in 1944 by an 18-year-old prisoner.

Kilar Chopin Górecki

Gasteig HP8

A profound unfolding of stillness and rebirth, Henryk Górecki’s third symphony – Symphony of Sorrowful Songs – not only topped the classical charts but cracked the British pop charts in 1992, selling over a million copies and rocketing the Polish composer into global fame. Its fascination has not waned over the last thirty years, with multiple recordings and stagings; the Mahlerian beauty and meditation on motherhood, love and loss still speaks to a huge audience.

Jess Gillam and Symphony of Sorrowful Songs

Studio Theatre

The Los Angeles Master Chorale opens the 2024-2025 season with Sing Joyfully | 60th Anniversary Celebration Concert, which features a cappella pieces from the Renaissance to present day. The concert opens with William Byrd’s ebullient Sing Joyfully, and the Chorale will take Byrd at his word by joyfully singing choral showpieces by Anton Bruckner, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla. The second half of the program celebrates the 30th anniversary of Morten Lauridsen’s classic O Magnum Mysterium (written for the Chorale), along with glorious music of Elinor Remick Warren, Moses Hogan and Leonard Bernstein among many others.

Sing Joyfully | A 60th Anniversary Celebration Concert!

Walt Disney Concert Hall

Immerse yourself in an evening of profound emotion and contemporary dance with the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège (OPRL) as they present "Górecki, Les chants plaintifs" at the Manège Fonck in Liège. This captivating event is scheduled for Saturday, September 21, 2024, at 8:00 PM, promising an experience of approximately one hour that will leave you moved and inspired.

The highlight of the evening is the performance of Henryk Górecki's Third Symphony, also known as the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. This piece, a contemporary masterpiece and the best-selling classical record of all time, stands out for its slow, ethereal movements that form a captivating triptych. It has touched the hearts of a New Age generation and remains as relevant today as ever. The symphony is an ode to love – the love of a mother for her son and a young girl's devotion to the Virgin Mary, weaving a narrative that oscillates between darkness and light, ultimately culminating in hope.

Adding a dynamic layer to Górecki's haunting music, the evening features a powerful choreography by Kader Attou, a master of urban dance. His work, performed by the renowned company Accrorap, promises to bring an emotional depth and a zest for life to the stage, perfectly complementing the symphony's themes.

Soprano Jodie Devos lends her voice to the plaintive chants, following in the footsteps of iconic performers like Dawn Upshaw and Beth Gibbons of Portishead. Under the direction of Karel Deseure, the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège brings this poignant music to life, ensuring an unforgettable experience.

Tickets for this unique symphonic and dance event are priced at 32 / 19 / 11, making it accessible to a wide audience. Don't miss the opportunity to witness the fusion of contemporary classical music and modern dance in the historic setting of Liège's Manège Fonck. Reserve your tickets now and be part of an evening that celebrates the enduring power of love and hope through the arts.

OPRL+ Dance: Górecki, The plaintive songs

Dethier Architecture

Jan Lisiecki performs a program of preludes in his Carnegie Hall recital debut, treating audiences to dozens of succinct, characterful works by Chopin, J. S. Bach, Rachmaninoff, Szymanowski, Messiaen, and Górecki. This musical tradition is masterfully exemplified by Chopin’s Twenty-Four Preludes, which comprises the second half of the recital. These 24 individual pieces—one for each major and minor key, many of them no longer than a minute or two long—offer unique insight into the artistry of both composer and performer.

Jan Lisiecki, Piano

Carnegie Hall

Enjoy a Sunday Serenade with the Dakota String Quartet, showcasing masterpieces of chamber music in the Augustana University Hamre Recital Hall!

SDSO Chamber Music Concert

Enjoy a Sunday Serenade with the Dakota String Quartet, showcasing masterpieces of chamber music in the Augustana University Hamre Recital Hall!



Augustana University

What happened to the pop music of the past? Once upon a time, polkas, waltzes, and guitar solos reigned supreme (though not at the same time!). Come join Parlando as we explore what happened to the popular music genres of the past, and how they have been immortalized in classical music. 
Featuring cellist Henry Shapard performing Friedrich Gulda’s uproarious Concerto for Cello and Wind Orchestra, the concert also includes Henryk Górecki’s Kleines Requiem für eine Polka and Jacques Ibert’s Divertissement.

Parlando: Requiem for a Polka

Kaufman Music Center

Simply, but powerfully put, William Grant Still’s Mother and Child is one of the most beautiful pieces you’ve likely never heard. Dubbed the ‘Dean of African American Composers’ and the first African American composer to be performed by a major symphony orchestra, as more and more of Still’s music is discovered, the composer is posthumously getting the recognition he so richly deserved. The SoNA Singers join us in Chichester Psalms, perhaps Leonard Bernstein’s most popular choral work, and it’s absolutely "pure Lenny." Biting chords, pungent colors, awe-inspiring harmonies, and masterful orchestration make this music one-of-a-kind. And did you know that the best-selling contemporary classical album of all time is Henryk Górecki’s Symphony of Sorrows? It’s true! We will play this huge work that contains an entire world of human emotions: love, sorrow, sadness, loss, and an ecstatic enveloping beauty. In Górecki’s third symphony, award-winning soprano Miriam Khalil will join SoNA musicians to sing haunting Polish texts spanning centuries, giving perspectives from both a mother having lost her child, and a child separated from their parents.

Mother and Child

Walton Arts Center

The penultimate programme in our season takes us on a journey from the Silesian lands up to the north and back to Central Europe again.

Composer

Henryk Górecki

Events

Upcoming events

Mar 9, 2027

Górecki. Sibelius. Beethoven · Prague Philharmonia

Past events

May 17, 2026

Songs of Hope and Sorrow · FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre

Apr 21, 2026

Strauss: Metamorphosen · Dallas Chamber Symphony

About

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