# Gorecki symphony 2 versus symphony 3



## deprofundis (Apr 25, 2014)

Ockay what is your favorite between the two, i really have a hard time choosing between these two.
Since symphony 2 is real good to my ears but symphony of sorrowful song is in it's own league.

But this said i love Beatus vir on symphony 2 the work gently drones than the ending is mezmerizing.
So in the end im really divided between what i like best, maybe i love these symphony equal.

I dont understand why people dosen get the awesomeness of symphony 2 but dig symphony 3 only what is your view on this.

:tiphat:


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## Revel (Feb 25, 2015)

I find No. 2 irritating (No offense). I just don't get it.

No. 3 I can't do without. I have the Zofia Kilanowicz version w/ the Polish National Radio SO. Gets regular play.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I prefer the 2nd even though I like both - it sounds as if it has a Janus-like quality in which it points the way to works like the 3rd but still has a connection with his sometimes harsher earlier style. Perhaps the precursor factor is why I prefer Revolver to Sgt. Pepper. :lol:


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

The third is one of my favourite pieces of music. The second is not even close.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Temperamentally they are very different, the outward aggressiveness of the 2nd versus the subdued, slow 3rd. 
I probably tend to play the 2nd mostly. The 1st seems rather small and unimportant.


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## brg5658 (Mar 2, 2015)

I much prefer the 3rd. 

I listen to the 2nd occasionally, but not while I'm home alone!  Has a bit of a "Psycho" (the movie) vibe to it IMO.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

I too much prefer the 3rd.

I don't care that the 2nd is "aggressive" or "irritating" -- I tend to like aggressive, irritating music. Or that it does have a "Psycho" vibe -- I like the "Psycho" score by Bernard Hermann.

Under usual circumstances, I'd probably admire the 2nd much more than I currently do because it's a soundly (sometimes noisily so) crafted contemporary era symphony with plangent chord clusters, some fine blaring brass, enough drum beating to keep one awake throughout (no need for Haydn-like surprises), a lot of contrast, and some phenomenal singing .... And who doesn't admire Copernicus?

But the circumstances are not usual because of Symphony No. 3 which is simply stunning as a work of musical art. It speaks a more profound message, musically and text-wise, than does No. 2, even though one can hear that it arises out of the same "sound universe" as No. 2.

Perhaps the most convincing statement I can make on my preference for No. 3 over No. 2 is that I currently have in my collection well over a dozen different recordings of _The Symphony of Sorrowful Songs _(In fact, I think I have every recording of the work ever put on disc!) but only one recording of the No. 2, a Stradivarius disc STR33324 with The Fricsay Symphonic Orchestra and the Bartok Chorus under the baton of Tamas Pal, which disc I am listening to as I type this.

As I hear it in comparison to my memory of No. 3 (of which I also have the score), No. 2 seems to flounder in a murky atmosphere (even one that is filled with crashes and booms on occasion) much longer than should probably be necessary. There are some haunting vocal lines in the second movement, and at least one "chorale" that rises to a greater height than the rest, but I never get the sense that Gorecki in this symphony quite pulled it all together.

He did pull it all together in the 3rd. The opening movement of the third is brilliant as a study in musical "canon" technique, the way the melody overlaps and develops is splendid stuff, well worth study by anyone even remotely interested in musical composition. The contrast is present in this piece, too, but it is even greater than in Symphony 2. And at the end of Symphony 3, who isn't left stunned with awe, an emotional response No. 2 simply can't provide.

Had I never heard the Third by Gorecki, I might well be satisfied by his Second. But, alas, no more.


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## Guest (Mar 2, 2015)

I'm listening to 2 now, for the first time. I can see the similarities with 3 but I can't see 3 being dislodged by 2; for me 3 moves me every time I listen to it. A profoundly sad masterpiece.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

I need to hear both of those next month. I know that I sold copies of the 3rd back in the day when I worked at the HMV classical music department.


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## realdealblues (Mar 3, 2010)

The 3rd Symphony wins hands down in my book. The last time I listened to Symphony 2 I ended up shutting it off because it just started getting on my nerves. I must be in the same boat as Revel because I seem to find it "irritating" for whatever reason. I like much of Goreki's other works I've heard but I've never been able to bond with Symphony 2.


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