Gorecki: Symphony no. 3

Gorecki s Third Symphony, subtitled Symphony of Sorrowful Songs , caused a sensation in 1992 when it became a worldwide commercial and critical success, selling more than a million copies. Its spiritual minimalism struck a chord and put the Polish composer firmly on the map some 16 years after the work s composition. The words of the central movement are the opening to a prayer scratched on a cell wall by a Polish teenage girl while imprisoned during the Second World War.