Henryk Mikołaj Górecki

Biography

Henryk Mikolaj Górecki was a Polish composer whose Third Symphony, the 'Symphony of Sorrowful Songs' (1976), became an unlikely international bestseller in its 1992 recording. Moving from avant-garde sonorism to sacred minimalism, he wrote choral works such as 'Beatus Vir' and 'Miserere' and quartets for the *Kronos Quartet*, teaching in Katowice until his death in 2010. His music reached listeners far beyond the classical world without softening its austere character.