Symphony Of Sorrowful Songs - Gorecki 3 - Silent Devotion

Name: Symphony Of Sorrowful Songs - Gorecki 3 - Silent Devotion — Nationaal Orkest België
Start: 2027-04-24T20:00:00+02:00
Location: Schouwburg Kortrijk

Nationaal Orkest België

Classical music of exceptional depth and mastery

Sat 24 Apr ’27 20:00

24 Apr ’27

20:00

24 Apr ’27

20:00

Schouwburg Kortrijk, Kortrijk

Schouwburg - Zaal OAAS

Tickets

‘Symphony of Sorrowful Songs’, the absolute masterpiece by Polish composer Henryk Górecki, is coming to Kortrijk. The National Orchestra of Belgium, with Jeanine De Bique as its leading lady, lets these profound, dark songs resound beautifully in the renewed theatre hall.

Henryk Górecki’s Third Symphony is a true masterpiece of the 20th‑century symphonic repertoire. The work gained worldwide fame through the recording by the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Krzysztof Penderecki, featuring Portishead singer Beth Gibbons as soloist.

Górecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs consists of three movements built around deeply affecting texts on motherhood, despair and suffering. The first is a 15th‑century Polish lament of Mary, the mother of Jesus. The second is a message written on the wall of a Gestapo cell during the Second World War. The third is a Silesian folk song about a mother searching for her son, killed by the Germans during the Silesian uprisings.

The first and third movements speak from the perspective of a parent who has lost a child; the second from the viewpoint of a child separated from a parent. The result is a work of devastating emotional clarity.

Within Górecki’s oeuvre, the symphony marks the transition from his earlier dissonant style to the later, more tonal language for which he became widely known. It promises an evening of deep, world‑class classical music for listeners drawn to minimalism, drones and the darker edges of the orchestral palette.

The Belgian National Orchestra (BNO), founded in 1936, is the privileged partner of Bozar and a loyal collaborator of the Queen Elisabeth Competition. The orchestra performs with world‑renowned soloists such as Hilary Hahn, Thomas Hampson, Wynton Marsalis, Sergey Khachatryan and Roberto Alagna. At the same time, BNO invests in future generations of listeners and embraces innovative projects with artists like Ozark Henry, Stromae, Scylla and Zaho de Sagazan.

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