Henryk Górecki - Symphony No 3

The Guardian 80

Gibbons/Polish National Radio Symphony Orch/Penderecki (Domino)
The Portishead singer is not a trained soprano but her wracked style brings out the work’s eerie desperation

The Third Symphony by the cult Polish composer Henryk Górecki is one of the rare success stories in the world of contemporary orchestral music. Largely ignored or dismissed after its 1976 debut, it was revived by the Nonesuch label in 1992 and became a surprise hit, shifting more than a million copies and becoming the standard-bearer for a genre dubbed “holy minimalism”. The second movement in particular was used on adverts, TV trails and film soundtracks and was a regular fixture on the newly launched Classic FM.