This seems the ideal “big piece” for this Monday in the ‘remembrance season’. This is not something written specifically for such a purpose – but it does reflect on the effect of wars.
Until this became extremely widely known in the 1990s (largely because of this recording) I hadn’t heard of Górecki. In the same way as composers such as Vaughan Williams evoke an ‘English’ atmosphere, so for me this is very much a Central European sound.
It is not a ‘cheery’ piece of music – the title “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs” sort of gives that away – but it does contain a lot of lovely moments – and ultimately it leaves a positive feeling.