This symphony is poignant because it is the lamentations of three women. It is so rare to have the direct lamentations of three women, of women as for that. Most of the time such lamentations are indirect, captured through the eye and the pen of a man of some sort. Anne Franks are rare in this world. And Maries are just as little numerous. The first woman is this Mary herself expressing her sorrow on Jesus and his death. She wants to take over the wounds and the suffering. The second is the prayer of an eighteen year old girl in a gestapo cell in Poland where she must have lived her last days and hours, a prayer to the intercessor - Mary again - to help her live her death through. The third one is that of a mother who has lost her son to the war - we assume - or whatever any violent event and who thinks of her total state of forlornness that her life is going to be with no intercessor or accompanier for her to walk up to death, with no son anymore, not even a body, not event a grave, not even anything that could give some materiality to his existence, to her solace. Strange progression that then reminds us of the fact that the man-composer is the one telling us the story, unwrapping, unrolling and spreading out the three lamentations. Then the symphony reveals another story, another meaning. The admiration for both Jesus, the victim, and Mary, his mother. The immense communion in the serene and apprehensive suffering of the young woman standing on the threshold of victimized death, the man witness feeling horror surging up in his silent throat. And finally the man-composer disappearing in the last movement like the missing body of that boy taken away by a war or a revolution of some kind. Gorecki is able to recreate or rediscover the power of the compositions and singing of Hildegarde von Bingen. Entirely introspective, introvertly-oriented. The lamentation is addressed to the lamenting person herself. It is as if the whole horror of history was entirely contained in our own souls, minds and spirits, as if we were the alpha and the omega of the whole suffering plus every single moment of it in between, from this alpha to that omega self-contemplative lamentation. And her tears can become ours. And maybe we can share the deep gnawing evil of life for some transient moments.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine & University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne
This symphony is poignant because it is the lamentations of three women. It is so rare to have the direct lamentations of three women, of women as for that. Most of the time such lamentations are indirect, captured through the eye and the pen of a man of some sort. Anne Franks are rare in this world. And Maries are just as little numerous. The first woman is this Mary herself expressing her sorrow on Jesus and his death. She wants to take over the wounds and the suffering. The second is the prayer of an eighteen year old girl in a gestapo cell in Poland where she must have lived her last days and hours, a prayer to the intercessor - Mary again - to help her live her death through. The third one is that of a mother who has lost her son to the war - we assume - or whatever any violent event and who thinks of her total state of forlornness that her life is going to be with no intercessor or accompanier for her to walk up to death, with no son anymore, not even a body, not event a grave, not even anything that could give some materiality to his existence, to her solace. Strange progression that then reminds us of the fact that the man-composer is the one telling us the story, unwrapping, unrolling and spreading out the three lamentations. Then the symphony reveals another story, another meaning. The admiration for both Jesus, the victim, and Mary, his mother. The immense communion in the serene and apprehensive suffering of the young woman standing on the threshold of victimized death, the man witness feeling horror surging up in his silent throat. And finally the man-composer disappearing in the last movement like the missing body of that boy taken away by a war or a revolution of some kind. Gorecki is able to recreate or rediscover the power of the compositions and singing of Hildegarde von Bingen. Entirely introspective, introvertly-oriented. The lamentation is addressed to the lamenting person herself. It is as if the whole horror of history was entirely contained in our own souls, minds and spirits, as if we were the alpha and the omega of the whole suffering plus every single moment of it in between, from this alpha to that omega self-contemplative lamentation. And her tears can become ours. And maybe we can share the deep gnawing evil of life for some transient moments. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine & University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne