The Gramophone Award-winning Silesian Quartet present a double-album of the complete works for string quartet by compatriot Henryk Górecki. All three of his numbered string quartets were written late in 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 sixteenth-century song by Wacław of Szamotuły. The Second, double the length of the First, is subtitled ‘quasi una fantasia’ and follows a classical four-movement form, subtly referencing Beethoven. Górecki completed the Third Quartet (double the length of the Second!) after the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs had catapulted his music to much wider acclaim. It extends to 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 is based on folksongs from Kurpie, a region north-west of Warsaw. The composer himself suggested that these works would be effective when performed by a string quartet, and here the Silesian Quartet gives us the world première recording of that version.
Extra material for download
