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Mar 29, 2019 Beth Gibbons By Christopher Roberts

On November 29, 2014 Beth Gibbons of Portishead teamed up with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Krzysztof Penderecki, to perform Henryk Górecki’s acclaimed 1977 symphony, Symphony No. 3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs). Now an album and film documenting the performance, simply titled Henryk Górecki: Symphony No. 3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs), has been released today by Domino. Now that the album is out, you can stream the whole thing below. Also below is a list of screenings for the film.

Read our rave review of Henryk Górecki: Symphony No. 3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs).

The film and album were both produced by the National Audiovisual Institute, Poland and directed by Michał Merczyński. Check out an interactive website for the project here.

A previous press release described the project as such: “Following an invitation to collaborate at the concert, Beth Gibbons-the elusive yet iconic frontwoman of Portishead, one of the most important British bands of the last two decades-undertook an intense preparation process, including tackling the challenge of learning the Polish original text (and the emotional weight it carries) without speaking the mother language. The other challenge was the music itself. Beth’s voice is, in classical terms, a contralto; Górecki wrote for a soprano, one register higher. While she had ventured into the soprano range before, she hadn’t spent a sustained stretch of time there in performance; she sought the help of both English and Polish vocal coaches. Typical to Beth, the challenge was met and exceeded.”

Symphony No. 3 was not initially well received outside of Górecki’s native Poland, but eventually became considered a classic of 20th century classical music, going on to sell over a million copies. It has also been used in various films, such as Peter Weir’s Oscar nominated plane crash drama Fearless, from 1993 and starring Jeff Bridges and Rosie Perez.

Portishead’s last album was 2008’s Third. In 2002 Gibbons teamed up with Rustin Man (aka Talk Talk’s Paul Webb) for the collaborative record Out of Season.

International Film Screening Dates:

March 30 - Warsaw, Poland - National Audiovisual Institute
March 31 - Amsterdam, Netherlands - Melkweg Cinema
March 31 - Berlin, Germany - Babylon Kino Berlin Mitte
April 1 - Milan, Italy - Santeria Social Club
April 1 - Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM Rose Cinemas) (7:15pm screening / 9:00pm screening)

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