Track Listing

1. First Piece
2. Second Piece
3. Third Piece
4. I. Tranquillo
5. II. Allegro Impetuoso-Marcatissimo
6. III Allegro - Deciso Assai
7. Adagio - Cantabile
8. I. Lento (Adagio) - Tranquillo
9. II. Lento Tranquillissimo - Cantabilissimo
10. III. Lento - Largo; Dolcissimo

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #355614 in Music
• Released on: 1996-05-28
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .23 pounds

Customer Reviews

A Mixed Bag?
The Three Pieces in Old Style that begin this album are quiet and tranquil little gems - with the second being just the slightest bit jaunty. They are absolutely lush and will enfold you into eight minutes of pure peace. The Little Requiem for a Polka is altogether more serious and sometimes disturbing, but at its heart is an ironic playfullness. It has drive and an impish character, especially in the third movement which faintly resembles rush hour a la Gershwin. The final Adagio-Cantabile is delectably somber. The Good Night Requiem that closes the program is so soft and indistinct that it is hard to believe that the only two instruments playing are an alto flute and a piano. The soprano solo is lovely and rounds out the disc nicely. Telarc's sound is, as usual, impeccable. This is mostly a disc full of gentle, meditative music (with the exceptions of two jolts from within the Kleines Requiem). If you enjoy the sleepy qualities of Hovhaness or Faure, but don't mind the sonorities of Bartok, then you will enjoy this collection of short pieces by Gorecki.

Worth an Audition
Here are three interesting pieces from Polish composer Henryk Gorecki (b. 1933), who gained fame a few years ago when the Nonesuch recording of his Symphony No. 3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs) became a best seller, no doubt because of the enthusiastic review I gave it (yeah, right). The CD opens with Three Pieces in Olden Style, consisting of three pleasant although hardly profound short movements for string orchestra.

The next composition, Kleines Requiem fur eine Polka ("Little Requiem for a Polka"), which is for piano and 13 instruments, is somber, intense, and expressive. The first movement is slow and wistful, but then the second movement explodes with intense figures from the piano and brass, with echoes and counterpoint being tossed around energetically before the music suddenly becomes hushed again. The short third movement has a dance-like rhythmic vitality, sounding almost as though it could have been written by Stravinsky, and then the final movement has a peaceful yet striving quality to it that reminds the listener of the mood if not the sound of a Bruckner adagio.

The final composition, Good Night, is a quiet piece--again referred to as a Requiem by the composer, for he wrote the music as a memorial tribute to an English champion of Gorecki's music--for soprano, alto flute, 3 tam-tams, and piano. It is remarkable for its expressive use of spare sonorities. This well-recorded Telarc CD is certainly well worth an audition by those looking to expand their musical horizons.