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© Copyright 1998, Jim Loy
Henryk Górecki's Symphony No. 3, "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs," is my candidate for the greatest and most beautiful piece of music written in the 20th Century, maybe in all of history. I am not exaggerating. Such a judgment is a matter of personal taste, of course. But, listen to this piece of music at least once in your life. I have listened to it about a hundred times, so far.
This symphony is very slow, all the way through, something of a trademark of Górecki's. It has a Soprano solo, in Polish, most of the way through. The symphony is mainly a lamentation about the Holocaust of World War II. It was written in 1976 (Górecki was born in 1933), and is very popular.
Order one of these recordings: Zinman, Upshaw, London Sinfonietta or Zofia Kilanowisz, Polish Radio from Amazon.com (goes directly to the recording). Both recordings are very good.