GORECKI: Symphony No. 3. Dawn Upshaw, soprano;...

GORECKI: Symphony No. 3. Dawn Upshaw, soprano; the London Sinfonietta, conducted by David Zinman. Elektra Nonesuch 9 79282-2. The subtitle of Henryk Gorecki’s 1976 work is “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs,” and it is built--in three big, slow movements--around Polish folk materials, plus the graffito of a Polish prisoner of the Gestapo. The grief expressed here is transfigured, however, by a glowing, long-spanned modal polyphony that carries the music forward in great, hopeful arches. Upshaw has the purity of sound and strength of line required, soaring over Gorecki’s richly rumbling orchestra in poignant splendor, while Zinman maintains momentum and nuance.