Rediscovered Górecki oratorio given world premiere
PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge
05.11.2015 12:49
An oratorio by the late Polish composer Henryk Górecki was premiered in Kraków on Wednesday evening.
The world premiere of 'Sanctus Adalbertus' at the ICE Kraków Congress Centre. Photo: PAP/Jacek Bednarczyk
The hour-long work 'Sanctus Adalbertus' was written in 1997 to mark the 1000th anniversary of the death of St Adalbert of Prague, a missionary who was killed after attempting to convert pagan Prussians to Christianity.
The oratorio was premiered at the recently launched ICE Kraków Congress Centre, the largest public building to be raised in central Kraków since the 1930s.
Conductor Jacek Kaspszyk led the performance with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the choirs of the Polish Radio Orchestra and the Kraków Philharmonic.
“It is a work that is full of the simplicity that Górecki is famed for, and yet at the same time it is full of emotion,” commented soloist Wioletta Chodowicz.
Górecki is best known in the wider world for his 'Symphony No. 3', also know as the 'Symphony of Sorrowful Songs'.
He is regarded as one of the key figures in the post-war renaissance of Polish music, together with Krzysztof Penderecki and Witold Lutosławski.
Górecki died in 2010. (nh/rk)