Henryk Gorecki - Miserere

Wednesday 1st February 1995
Henryk Gorecki - Miserere

STYLE: Choral
RATING 7 7 7 7 7 7 7
OUR PRODUCT CODE: 18768-
LABEL: Elektra 7559594583
FORMAT: CD Album
ITEMS: 1

Reviewed by John Irvine

It is not necessary to have a PhD in classical music to enjoy Gorecki - all that is required of the listener is patience and openness. Or to put it another way, Gorecki's music demands peace, silence, patience, an open and attentive heart. His music creates a moment of peace, a time between times. Gorecki is the comprehensible face of modernism, since he writes in a clear and simple language. It is this simplicity that appeals to people today - and generates the criticism that Gorecki simply writes far too few notes. His works are easily recognisable as slow, possessing mesmeric repetitiveness and great depth and breadth. This is true of "Miserere", a work written for the trade union Solidarity in 1981, but not performed until 1987. The words "Domine Deus noster" (Lord our God) are repeated over and over with the text "Miserere nobis" (have mercy on us) saved for the final three minutes. The choir is divided into eight parts and each enter in turn, from the bass voices upwards, over an extended canon of some 25 minutes. Such simple and fragile music would fail in the hands of any lesser composer. In Gorecki's hands such minimalist simplicity is strength and power. The Chicago Symphony Chorus under John Nelson put in an impassioned performance. It is, however, the sound quality of the recording which is a little under par. A thick, muddy sound spoils the overall effect by placing a barrier, as it were, between performer and listener. There is also a significant level of background ambient noise in the church this was recorded in, which proves to be distracting in the quieter passages. Great music, good performance, flawed performance.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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