Colin Stetson Reimagines A Classical Phenomenon

Sax player and composer Colin Stetson is probably best known for his work with Arcade Fire, Lou Reed, Bon Iver, and many others; but his solo performances defy genre and the apparent limits of a single human and a single instrument. Stetson’s latest project, which we are premiering this week, is an album called Sorrow: A Reimagining of Gorecki’s 3rd Symphony. If that title doesn’t make a ton of sense, let me explain:

The late Polish composer Henryk Gorecki (pronounced go-RET-skee) was famous for one work: his Symphony #3, known as the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. The piece was in three parts, each based on a text that dealt explicitly with loss and grief, and implicitly with faith and perseverance. Gorecki spun long, almost folksong-like melodies for each text, sung in Polish by a soprano, while the orchestra played a processional set of simple chords, using repetition in a way that echoed the sounds of American minimalism. The work had a deeply spiritual cast, but was also a rich, sensual experience – the orchestra seemed to heave and throb gently beneath the flowing lines of the soprano, and the symphony was colored by the tension of wondering if the whole thing would collapse under its own weight.

When the American soprano Dawn Upshaw, conductor David Zinman, and the London Sinfonietta released their recording in 1992, this formerly obscure piece suddenly became a hit. It sold over a million copies – most of them probably going to people who had little previous interest in contemporary classical music. Among those struck by this work was Colin Stetson. “We all have those moments when we experience a piece of music that transforms us, and this was one of those moments for me,” he says about the symphony. “And this dedication to a thorough knowledge of the piece eventually gave way to a need to perform it.” 

Stetson is true to the long, aching melodies of Gorecki’s original. But instead of a symphony orchestra, he employs a mixed classical and rock ensemble, with alternately droning and snarling saxophone and climactic moments that echo the rhythmic and textural tension of black metal. Surely that is a sound that Gorecki would never have imagined, but it fits perfectly into Stetson’s thrilling, heartfelt, and slightly compressed take on this contemporary classic.

Stetson and company will perform the piece live in NY on April 18 at Le Poisson Rouge.

This album is now available for purchase; you can listen to a stream here: