Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, one of the most prominent living composers, has received the St. Gregory the Great Medal from Pope Benedict XVI. It is the highest papal distinction that can be bestowed on a lay person.
 
During a ceremony at the Archbishop’s Palace in Kraków, Cardinal Dziwisz said that the medal is ‘an expression of the gratitude of the universal Church for the composer’s hard work and sacrifice, for his testimony of faith and unbroken spirit, for his wonderful compositions which have a lasting place in the treasure house of sacred music, and also an expression of the church’s anticipation of more pieces that will uplift our hearts to God’.

Cardinal Dziwisz, who was a close aide to Pope John Paul II throughout his long pontificate, said the the Polish Pope highly valued his friendship with Henryk Mikołaj Gorecki and his music. The Cardinal said jokingly that the composer has failed to fulfil his earlier promise of writing a mass for the Jubilee Year 2000. The composer pledged he would stop ‘being lazy’, adding that a mass setting is an extremely difficult task. He said he is toying with the idea of a mass consisting of 10-12 sections, to be performed either separately or as a whole.

Recalling his career, Gorecki said the most memorable moment in his life was June 6, 1979, the day when his Beatus Vir, written to mark Pope John Paul II’s visit to Poland, was perfomed in Krakow in the Pope’s presence.  The composer attended the ceremony together with his wife, Jadwiga, a pianist, and the oldest two of their five grandchildren.

Two months ago Gorecki turned 75.  In the 1990s, the recording of his Third Symphony,  written in 1976, achieved unprecedented international success. Two decades ago, his music attracted new performers and  audiences in the West. This led to the composition of three string quartets, commissioned and premiered by the Kronos Quartet from San Francisco.

Click on the audio icon to listen to the report by Michał Kubicki.