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Rating: I.
Slow: Calmly sustained but singable.
The medieval prayer of "The Lament of the Holy Cross", centered on the Virgin's grief for the dead Christ, the formal and poetic centerpiece of the movement. A poignant litany preceded by the slow and progressive crescendo of the strings, the painful tension of the double basses that leaves a sorrowful space for violas and violins, and the late introduction of the few and liquid notes of the piano. In the middle of the composition, the song is mournful, heartfelt, without strength. But it rises in its anguished solitude, becomes a prayer, and fades away, dying down. Again a reflection, then the final torn cry that violins and violas gather at the same high tones.
Conversely, the fade into the lower octaves, in the double basses, in the heavy timbres. Pain is a cry and a painful meditation.
II.
Slow and broad: Very calm - very singable - very sweet - very smooth.
The merciful prayer on the walls of a cell in Zakopane prison, a request for mercy and compassion from a young Polish deportee. Violins immediately alive, poignant in their calm pace. Just a few beats, then the abrupt fade into the lividest of chants. Strings and voice are a unity. The song rises slowly, redeems itself from the violas, and becomes a plea for redemption. A pause. The most painful of vocal counterpoints arrives in a poignant breath of suffering, clear in its grieving composure, bowing to the turn of the strings' motif.
The song aspires to something beyond the sensible, remains repeating in its bitter upheaval, then dissolves, once again, resolving into unison with the strings. Pain is the semblance of melancholy.
III.
Slow: Simple singable.
Polish folk song centered on the pain of a mother for her son lost in war. The sobbing of strings, constant, throughout the piece. A dark and shadowy beginning reports the imminent torpor of a song that lacks the strength to aspire to anguish. The strings gradually enrich with new impressions, fade lightly in harmony with the voice, then once again, companions of the latter, they rise pitifully. Again a change, a new tension, and to the song is attributed the sweetest and most bitter dimension of heartfelt emotion. A prayer of resignation, a litany through which all of nature is invited to resonate with the pain of the now lone mother, a request for relief from a sorrow that only the hope of a better stasis can soothe. The strings participate in their continuous and painful sobbing. Again a pause, then the turbid initial inflection again. The violins strive for drama with obstinacy, continue in their advance, hint at dissolving. Slowly they disappear. They die. Pain is a request for a less painful day.
"Symphony No. 3" by Henryk Mikolaj Górecki, never was music so pervaded by despair.
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