BBC Four will broadcast a documentary film, Friday, about two renowned composers of religious music – Poland’s Henryk Mikołaj Górecki and Estonia’s Arvo Pärt.
The film is part of the second series of the acclaimed 'Sacred Music' produced by BBC.
Seventy seven year-old Górecki is among the most renowned contemporary composers. At the start of his career, he was at the forefront of the Polish avant-garde music and also explored the folk music tradition.
In the early 1980s, following the imposition of martial law in Poland, he concentrated on choral settings, sacred music and chamber works. In the 1990s, the recording of his Third Symphony, written in 1976, achieved unprecedented international success, breaking all popularity records and becoming the most successful recording ever of a work by a contemporary composer.
Two decades ago, Gorecki’s music attracted new performers and audiences in the West. This led to the composition of three string quartets, Already it is Dusk (1988), Quasi una fantasia (1991) and Songs are Sung (2005), all commissioned and premiered by the Kronos Quartet from San Francisco.
Górecki’s music is performed throughout the world. He has received numerous honorary doctorates, including those from the Academy of Catholic Theology in Warsaw, Warsaw University, the Music Academy in Kraków, the Catholic University in Washington, the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Victoria University in Victoria, Canada, and the University of British Columbia in Montreal. (mk)