Symphony No. 2 (Górecki)
Symphony No. 2, the "Copernican," Op. 31 (II Symfonia "Kopernikowska") (ⓘ) is a choral symphony composed by Henryk Górecki in 1972 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the birth of astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus. Composed in a monumental style for solo soprano, baritone, choir and orchestra, it features text from Psalms no. 145, 6 and 135, along with an excerpt from Copernicus' book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium.
The symphony was commissioned by the Kosciuszko Foundation in New York and presented to Górecki as an opportunity to reach an audience outside his native Poland. Typically, he undertook extensive research on the subject, and was particularly taken by the philosophical implications of Copernicus' discovery, not all of which he viewed as positive.[1] Norman Davies commented: "His discovery, of the earth's motion round the sun, caused the most fundamental revolutions possible in the prevailing concepts of the human predicament."[2] Its world premiere took place on June 22, 1973 in Warsaw, featuring soprano Stefania Woytowicz and baritone Andrzej Hiolski.[3]
Adrian Thomas writes in the
The second symphony has been performed and recorded less than some of his other work (certainly less than his
Instrumentation
The symphony is scored for a very large orchestra.
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Notes
References
- Thomas, Adrian, "Górecki, Henryk Mikolaj," The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Second Edition (London: Macmillan Publishers Limited, 2001), 29 vols. ISBN 0-333-60800-3.
- Thomas, Adrian. Gorecki (Oxford Studies of Composers). Clarendon Press, April 1997. ISBN 0-19-816394-0