The concert of the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic under the baton of Giancarlo Guerrero will feature two great symphonies written in the 20th century. The author of the first one is Arthur Honegger, an artist whose works far too rarely appear in concert programmes. The second was written by Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, one of the most famous Polish artists of the last century. The solo part in his work will be performed by Aleksandra Kurzak. The theme of both symphonies is very similar – they have been understood to refer to the greatest calamities of the 20th century.

The Symphony No. 3 “Symphonie liturgique” by Arthur Honegger was written in 1945–1946. The composer’s goal was, on the one hand, to confront the horrors of war, and on the other, to express hope for peace. The title of each of the three movements refers to one liturgical text. The Dies irae (Day of Wrath) is violent and sharp music, bringing to mind a cataclysm crushing everything in its path. The De profundis clamavi (From the abyss I called) is the lament of humanity far from God. The Dona nobis pacem (Give us peace) begins with a brutal march, and after a powerful dissonant climax follows a fragment symbolizing the peace won with such difficulty. Honegger confessed in the context of this work: “My goal was to present the rise of a new man who will stand against the flood of barbarism, stupidity, suffering, mechanization and bureaucracy that we have been struggling with for several years.”

Górecki’s Symphony No. 3 “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs” consists of three movements too. Each of them is maintained at a slow pace, in each there is a motif of the loss of a child and the inevitable mourning of the mother associated with this tragedy. The text of the first movement is taken from the 15th-century Lament Świętokrzyski [Lament of the Holy Cross], in which the mother of God mourns the death of her son under the cross. In the second movement there are words engraved in 1944 on the wall of the “Palace” hotel cell by a young girl captured by the Gestapo. The woman comforts her mother in them and turns to faith. The third movement is a Silesian folk song about a distraught mother looking for her son killed in one of the Silesian Uprisings. In the musical layer, the composer used quotes from Polish folk melodies. The asceticism and simplicity of the musical language used by the artist strengthen the emotional message hidden in the words. This music is extremely focused, luminous, giving hope and comfort.