Górecki: Complete Music for String Quartet

The Gramophone Award-winning Silesian Quartet presents a double album featuring the complete works for string quartet by their fellow countryman Henryk Górecki. All three of his numbered string quartets were written late in his life—the first in 1988—and all three were commissioned by the Kronos Quartet. The first quartet is a single-movement work based on a 16th-century song by Wacław of Szamotuły. The second, twice as long as the first, bears the subtitle “quasi una fantasia” and follows a classical four-movement form, subtly alluding to Beethoven. Górecki completed the third quartet (twice as long as the second!) after his “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs” had brought his music much wider recognition. It consists of five movements and is considered by many to be one of his greatest compositions. In the 1980s and 1990s, Górecki composed several collections of choral songs. “Five Kurpian Songs” are based on folk songs from Kurpie, a region northwest of Warsaw. The composer himself suggested that these works would be effective when performed by a string quartet, and here the Silesian Quartet presents the world premiere of this version.