Portishead’s leading woman Beth Gibbons and the Polish National Radio Symphony Hall have announced that hey will be releasing an audio and film recording of their collaborative set Henryk Górecki: Symphony No. 3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs). The performance originally took place November 29, 2014 at The National Grand Opera Theare in Warsaw. The recording will be released on March 29th. In a press release, Gibbons heavily prepared for the performance by learning the original Polish text and the music itself, scouting out English and Polish voice coaches. Beth’s voice is, in classical terms, a contralto; Górecki wrote for a soprano, one register higher. While she had ventured into the soprano range before, she hadn’t spent a long amount of time there performing there; Gibbons’ goal was to emotionally engage with the music, which she did. She received much acclaim for the performance. This marks Gibbons first release of music in over 10 years.

She performed alongside Krzysztof Penderecki, who provided the soundtracks to The Shining and The Exorcist. Henryk Górecki, a Polish composer of contemporary classical music is believed to be the most commercially successful classical composer in recent times, with previous versions of his Third Symphony, Symphony of Sorrowful Songs selling over a million copies. He sadly passed away in 2010.

Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat