GORECKI: SYMPHONY NO. 3. Stefania Woytowicz, soprano;...

GORECKI: SYMPHONY NO. 3. Stefania Woytowicz, soprano; Orchestra of Suedwestfunks-Baden-Baden conducted by Ernest Bour. Erato ERA-9275. This important, hourlong 1977 symphony by the 53-year-old Polish composer will probably escape most browsers, thanks to Erato’s total absence of annotation and to the lurid album cover, depicting a scene from the French film, “Police,” for which the score serves as sound-track music. Gorecki appropriates the diatonic methods of the “New Romanticism” for a fervent vocal-orchestral threnody, drawing his texts from both ancient folk sources and the graffiti of a World War II victim, hence the subtitle, “Symphony of Lamentations.” The opening, 30-minute canon, broken by the soprano’s entrance, shows Gorecki’s capacity for sustaining his brooding material over a long span, the second reveals the simple eloquence of his chording, while the finale subscribes to a compact theme-and-variations format. The recording features the participants of the premiere. Despite Woytowicz’s precarious intonation, theirs is a glowing reading.