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Los Angeles Master Chorale’s New CD, “Miserere,”
Featuring Sublime Choral Music of Henryk Górecki
Recorded in Walt Disney Concert Hall,
to be Released World-Wide by Decca September 3, 2012
Chorale’s Second Decca CD, Conducted by Music Director Grant Gershon,
Includes Three Songs Embracing Solidarity and the Human Spirit:
Miserere, Pieśni Maryjne (“Marian Songs”) and Lobgesang (“Hymn of Praise”)
The Los Angeles Master Chorale, conducted by Music Director Grant Gershon, celebrates the life and work
of acclaimed Polish composer Henryk Górecki (December 6, 1933 – November 12, 2010) in its new CD,
“Miserere,” which features three of his sublime choral pieces embracing solidarity and the human spirit and
is set for international release by Decca on September 3, 2012. Recorded in Walt Disney Concert Hall,
the musical tribute to Górecki – a brave champion of Poland’s struggle for independence from Soviet
control who is noted for the rapturous simplicity and monumental emotional power of his music – includes
Miserere, Lobgesang (“Hymn of Praise”) and the first appearance of Pieśni Maryjne (“Marian Songs”) on a
major label.
Gershon and the Master Chorale first performed Miserere a decade ago during Gershon’s inaugural
season as music director. The twelve-movement work moved the audience and performers to tears. “It
was an overwhelmingly emotional experience for all of us,” Gershon recalls. “Over the ensuing ten years,
we have explored much of the a cappella choral music of Górecki, and we continue to find new wellsprings
of compassion and humanity in these works.” The conductor and this acclaimed chorus naturally turned to
Górecki’s Miserere as the centerpiece for their second Decca album.
The remarkable acoustics of the landmark Disney Hall, the Chorale’s home venue, complement the choir’s
famously rich sound. The album also captures the full expressive force and profound spirituality of the
Master Chorale’s approach to Górecki. Gershon locates the ties that bind his singers to the composer’s
work in three words from Miserere: “Domine Deus noster” (“Lord Our God”).
“These three words, intoned (like a mantra) countless times by the choir, contain a universe of sorrow and
solidarity,” Gershon observes. “The Miserere exemplifies Górecki’s uncompromising belief that one can
Decca Releases Los Angeles Master Chorale CD Featuring Music of Polish Composer Henryk Górecki
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reach the underlying truth in a piece of art only by stripping away all that is extraneous.”
Miserere was written in 1981 as a protest against a violent attack by police on members of the Rural
Solidarity union in the northern Polish city of Bydgoszcz. Underground press reports of police brutality
incensed ordinary citizens and hardened attitudes against the ruling communist regime. The imposition of
marshal law in December 1981 meant that Górecki’s piece could not be performed. It finally received its
world premiere in September 1987, heard for the first time close to the site where the young Roman
Catholic priest and champion of the Solidarity movement, Father Jerzy Popiełuszko, had been murdered
several years earlier by members of the state security services.
Górecki drew inspiration from his homeland’s Church Songbook, originally compiled in the late 1870s while
Poland was still partitioned within the Russian, German and Austro-Hungarian empires. Four of his five
Pieśni Maryjne, written in the mid-1980s, are based on melodies and texts from the Church Songbook.
The composer forged the text of Lobgesang from words taken from the Book of Psalms. The eight-minute
work, for choir and glockenspiel, was first performed in August 2000 at St Johanneskirche in Mainz,
Germany, to mark the 600th anniversary of Johannes Gutenberg, the man who introduced Europe to the
printing press. Gershon and the Los Angeles Master Chorale gave the US premiere of Lobgesang at Walt
Disney Hall in 2008.
“To reflect Górecki’s passionate belief in the ability of music to transcend borders and unite people, it
seems fitting that each of the three works on this recording is sung in a different language,” comments
Gershon. “It is a tribute to the astonishing acoustics of our home, the Walt Disney Concert Hall, that these
very different pieces can resonate with the right balance of grandeur, intimacy and warmth. It is therefore
with enormous pleasure yet deep humility that we offer these recorded performances of the great choral
works of Henryk Górecki.”
Górecki – Miserere
Los Angeles Master Chorale
Grant Gershon
CD 00289 478 3537
Digital 00289 478 3538
International release September 3, 2012
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About Composer Henryk Górecki
Early childhood was an idyllic time for Henryk Górecki. Young Henryk, born December 6, 1933, grew up on the family
farm in Śląsk (or Polish Silesia), a place of wheat fields and hay meadows boldly punctuated by coal mines and steel
Decca Releases Los Angeles Master Chorale CD Featuring Music of Polish Composer Henryk Górecki
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mills. The boy’s world was upturned by the death of his mother and, soon after, by a fall that dislocated his hip.
Górecki received poor medical treatment and developed life-threatening complications. His father, a railway
employee and amateur musician, did little to encourage his son’s love of music but eventually sent him to study violin
with a local teacher. In September 1939, Nazi and Soviet forces invaded Poland and subjugated the country within
five weeks. Shortly before the Second World War’s end, Górecki witnessed the desperate plight of inmates from
Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp as they were forcibly marched through Silesia. What he saw left a lifelong
mark on the composer, his worldview and his music. Poland’s post-war experience of Soviet communism and its
many injustices also informed Górecki’s artistic development and gradual move towards composing sacred music.
Górecki was awarded Poland’s highest honor, the Order of the White Eagle, just weeks before he died on November
12, 2010.
About the Artists
GRANT GERSHON was named Music Director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale in 2001 and also serves as
Resident Conductor of the LA Opera. The Los Angeles Times declares that the Chorale "has become the most
exciting chorus in the country under Grant Gershon." During his tenure with the Chorale, he has led nearly 100
performances at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, including virtually all of the major works in the choral repertoire. A
champion of new music as well, Mr. Gershon has led world premiere performances of major works by John Adams,
Louis Andriessen, Christopher Rouse, Steve Reich, and Chinary Ung, among many others. His discography includes
two Grammy Award-nominated recordings: Sweeney Todd (New York Philharmonic Special Editions) and Ligeti’s
Grand Macabre (Sony Classical); and five CDs with the Chorale: Glass-Salonen (RCM), You Are (Variations)
(Nonesuch), Daniel Variations (Nonesuch), A Good Understanding (Decca), and Miserere (Decca). In New York he
has appeared on the Great Performers series at Lincoln Center and on the Making Music series at Zankel Hall. Other
major appearances include performances at the Ravinia, Aspen, Edinburgh, Helsinki and Vienna Festivals. He has
worked closely with many leading conductors, including Claudio Abbado, Pierre Boulez, Gustavo Dudamel, Lorin
Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Simon Rattle and Esa-Pekka Salonen. In 2007, Mr. Gershon conducted the Minnesota Opera’s
world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon’s opera The Grapes of Wrath, which was recorded live for PS Classics. In 2008,
he made his highly acclaimed LA Opera debut leading eight performances of Verdi’s La Traviata. In 2010 Gershon
led the world premiere performances at LA Opera of Daniel Catán’s Il Postino featuring Plácido Domingo, which was
subsequently broadcast on PBS’ Great Performances, and which he also conducted in Chile in July 2012. Other
highlights include conducting L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato in a co-production with LA Opera and Gloria
Kaufman Presents Dance at the Music Center, featuring the Mark Morris Dance Group, and his Santa Fe Opera debut
in 2011, conducting Peter Sellars’ new production of Vivaldi’s Griselda. In November and December 2012, Mr.
Gershon conducts LA Opera’s production of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly. Mr. Gershon, who, among other accolades,
was named Outstanding Alumnus of the USC Thornton School of Music, is a member of the Board of Advisors for the
Thornton School and the Board of Directors of Chorus America.
Giving a voice to Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Grammy-nominated Los Angeles Master Chorale is led by Music
Director Grant Gershon. The New York Times calls the choir “inspired,” and The New York Observer declares it “a
superb vocal ensemble.” The Chorale is currently in its 49th season as a resident company of The Music Center of
Los Angeles County and its 10th as the resident chorus at Disney Hall. Presenting its own concert series each
season, it performs choral music from the earliest writings to the most recent contemporary compositions. To date,
the choir has commissioned 27 and premiered 76 new works, of which 44 were world premieres, and has been
awarded three ASCAP/Chorus America Awards for Adventurous Programming as well as Chorus America’s
prestigious Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence. The Chorale has performed in more than 300 concerts with
the Los Angeles Philharmonic at both Disney Hall and the Hollywood Bowl and has also appeared at the Ojai Music
Festival, the Great Performers series at Lincoln Center, and the Overture Center in Madison, Wisconsin, as well as in
leading venues throughout the Southland. Its discography includes five CDs under Gershon’s baton. LAMC
previously released three CDs under Music Director Emeritus Paul Salamunovich on RCM, including the Grammynominated Lauridsen-Lux Aeterna. The Chorale is also featured with Gershon on the soundtracks of such major
motion pictures as Lady in the Water and License to Wed. Serving more than 30,000 audience members of all ages
annually, the Los Angeles Master Chorale also provides award-winning education outreach to some 6,000 students
each year.
Decca Releases Los Angeles Master Chorale CD Featuring Music of Polish Composer Henryk Górecki
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About Decca Music Group
Decca Music Group is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its US label was established in
1934; after World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades. It is noted for its
development of recording methods in the United Kingdom and for the development of original cast albums in the
United States. Both wings are now part of Universal Music Group which is owned by Vivendi, a media conglomerate
headquartered in France. Today, Decca is a label of great diversity, home to many of the world’s most distinguished
artists. Its classical division Decca Classics is home to an array of the greatest stars such as Luciano Pavarotti,
Andrea Bocelli, Cecilia Bartoli, Renee Fleming, Juan Diego Florez and Jonas Kaufmann.
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8/16/12