Symphony of sorrowful songs

Liquid Cat asked in a comment some weeks back, whether I knew Henryk Górecki's 3rd Symphony entitled "Symphony of sorrowful songs". I didn't, and am very thankful for the tip.

The music is wonderfully beautiful: very slow and stately, melodies circling around themselves and building into a complex canon. The orchestra is balanced by a solo soprano, singing relatively short texts in Polish from religious and secular sources, all to do with death and loss. It is just heartrendingly sad, there will be tears in your eyes even before the soprano starts.

Beautiful as it is, the 3rd Symphony will not be on my iPod: can't have me crying in public.

It's been recorded at least four times: the premiere performance by the Sinfonie-Orchester des SWF Baden-Baden (conductor Ernest Bour, soprano solo Stefania Woytowicz), the London Sinfonietta (c David Zinman, s Dawn Upshaw), the Sinfonia Varsovia (c Alain Altinoglu, s Ingrid Perruche) and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (c Antoni Witt, s Zofia Kilanowicz). I've not heard the Upshaw version, but it is said to be less good than the others; the consensus on the Internet is that the Kilanowicz is the best - and also cheapest; it has the further advantage of having the lyrics well-presented in Polish and English. The Woytowicz performance is also very good, possibly my favourite, but even here in Germany it's almost impossible to find.

Highly recommended.