18. Candlelit Late Night

Homage to Beethoven, Bach and West Side Story

Henryk Górecki leapt to fame with his Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, where his setting of a short prayer to Mary Queen of Heaven found scratched on the wall of a Gestapo cell by a teenage girl caught the imagination of the world. Since then he wrote three devastating quartets, the second of which is a suitable postscript to David Lang’s little match girl passion.

Its four movements are played without a break, huge heartfelt lamentations, terrifying barbaric marches, a deeply moving Arioso with allusions to both Beethoven and Bach followed at last by a magnificent dance of joy that somehow reaches out both to Beethoven’s A minor quartet and Bernstein’s West Side Story. Go figure but do listen. The final coda will break your heart.