Nonesuch Records releases Henryk Górecki: A Nonesuch Retrospective, a seven-disc box set containing all of the Nonesuch recordings of Górecki works—Lerchenmusik; Symphony No. 3; String Quartets Nos. 1, 2, and 3; Miserere; Kleines Requiem für eine Polka; Harpsichord Concerto; and Good Night—as well as the first recording of the late composer's final work, Symphony No. 4, Tansman Episodes, on Friday, January 22. Also on that day comes the first vinyl LP of the beloved 1992 Nonesuch recording of Górecki’s Symphony No. 3.

In advance of these three releases, the Nonesuch Journal presents a series of videos featuring interviews with Henryk Górecki about Symphony No. 3 and with key players in the recording of Fourth—Górecki's son Mikolaj, also a composer, who completed Symphony No. 4 after his father's death; conductor Andrey Boreyko, who led the London Philharmonic Orchestra in the piece's premiere; Adrian Thomas, who wrote the album's liner notes—as well as an excerpt from the premiere performance of Symphony No. 4 by the LPO.

To begin, we revisit an interview Henryk Górecki gave in Katowice, Poland, in 1992, in which the composer discusses his Symphony No. 3, Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. The work was composed in 1976, and was at that time shocking in its tonality and simplicity, but it was with the release of the 1992 Nonesuch recording of the piece, featuring Dawn Upshaw and the London Sinfonietta, that it attracted international attention and climbed to the top of the classical music charts in both the US and the UK.

"Perhaps people find something they need in this piece of music," the composer said. "Somehow I hit the right note, something they were missing. Something somewhere had been lost to them. I feel that I instinctively knew what they needed."

Watch the interview here:

To pre-order Symphony No. 3 on vinyl, visit the Nonesuch Store now.