Henryk Górecki, Symphony No. 3 “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs”

On Friday 20 November at 20:00, the album is played in full inside the ANDETAG installation in central Stockholm. 53 minutes, 25 places.

Written in 1976 in three slow movements, carried throughout by a solo soprano. The texts are three laments: a fifteenth-century Polish lamentation of Mary, words that Helena Wanda Błażusiakówna inscribed on the wall of a Gestapo cell in 1944, and a Silesian folk song of a mother mourning a son lost in war. The 1992 recording with Dawn Upshaw, the London Sinfonietta and David Zinman sold over a million copies and spent 38 weeks at the top of the US classical chart, the best-selling contemporary classical recording there has been.

Extremely slow, almost breath-like movement, and long stretches of quiet. It is the heaviest evening in the programme, and the only purely classical one. A beautiful, sorrowful, quiet journey.

• Friday 20 November, 20:00. 53 minutes.
• 25 places. Doors open 15 to 30 minutes before, no late admission once the album has started.
• Price: 280 SEK. Full price only.
• Location: ANDETAG, Kungsgatan 39, Hötorget metro station, Stockholm.
• Please note: the sound of the breath from the installation stays present at low volume in the background. We think it enhances the experience.

This evening is one of ten. See the full autumn programme, or read about the music at ANDETAG.