The Modjeska Club is pleased to support a celebration of the music of
Henryk Mikolaj Gorecki who died last in November 2010 at the age of 78.
The
concert, entitled "Songs of Stones - The Music of Henryk Gorecki" is
organized by Jacaranda: Music on the Edge took place at the
First Presbyterian Church in Santa Monica.
The event's sponsors included, besides the Modjeska Club, the Consulate
General of the Republic of Poland which was celebrating Poland's
Presidency of the European Union (June to December 2011).
The program included:
Four Preludes Op. 1 (1955)
Quartet No. 2 "Quasi una Fantasia," Op. 64 (1991)
Quartet No. 1 "Already it is Dusk," Op.62 (1988)
Kleines Requiem für eine Polka Op. 66 (Little Requiem for a Polka, 1993)
Performers:
Mark Robson, piano; Calder Quartet, Lyris Quartet, Jacaranda Chamber Orchestra, Mark Alan Hilt, conductor
Program
note by Patrick Scott, Artistic Director of Jacaranda: "In the annals
of popular culture, Gorecki's Symphony of Sorrowful Songs is the
unprecedented chart-busting Classical crossover hit of all time. Yet,
the Polish composer was exceedingly private. Each work distils his
personal intensity without losing the tragic longing and wry humor
evident in the films, theatre and literature — in the national character
of Poland. One year after his death, this evocative program brings
together early piano music with two strikingly different string
quartets. The first is a one-movement tone poem, the second a four-part
journey. A unique instrumental requiem closes the celebration with the
haunted serenity that is Gorecki's trademark, as well as brash drama, a
sense of absurdity and his fervent spirit of consolation."