Henryk Mikołaj Górecki's Concerto for Harpsichord (or Piano) and String Orchestra Op. 40 (1980) was commissioned by the Polish Radio for the Composers Forum, a radio series of presentations of contemporary Polish composers. The first performance of the Concerto's harpsichord version took place in Katowice on 2nd March 1980 with Elżbieta Chojnacka, to whom the work is dedicated, as the soloist and the string group of the Polish Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra under Stanisław Wisłocki. It was not until ten years later, on 22nd April 1990, during the Poznań Music Spring, that the version with the piano instead of the harpsichord had its premiere with Jarosław Siwiński as the pianist and the Poznań Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra under Marcin Sompoliński.
Interestingly, the Concerto for Harpsichord has quite different neighbours on Górecki's opus list, being preceded by the Symphony No. 3 (1976) and Beatus Vir (1979), and followed by Blessed Raspberry Songs, a setting of Norwid (1980), and Miserere (1981), a grand work for a big mixed choir a cappella. These compositions are long, have a more or less sacral dimension and a contemplative mood. The Concerto, in contrast, lasts a mere nine minutes and both of its movements are uniquely dynamic and vigorously rhythmic.
While the Concerto makes some obvious references to the Polish highlanders' music, it nevertheless forms a part of the sequence of Górecki's "reductionist" music starting from his Refrain (1965) and distinguished by the striving for a maximum economy of means. Indeed, its consistent texture, limited set of harmonic means, ostinato melodic figures and persistent motoric rhythms constructed from eighth notes are unequivocal manifestations of the reductionist idea, making the Concerto its superb embodiment - and worrying the critics. As Małgorzata Gąsiorowska wrote in her review of the Concerto at the 1981 Warsaw Autumn Festival:
"Totally enamoured as I am with Górecki's 'Symphony No. 3', I cannot help sharing a concern that has nagged me during all performances of his 'Concerto': what does this music bring? On one hand, the persistent, and this time quickened, pulse, some kind of a challenge made to the sophisticated 'sound arabesques'. On the other hand, questions of the kind asked by musicologists from behind their desks: where is Górecki going with his two chords here and there, with the maximum simplification of texture, his quasi-Bach tonal chorea spiced up with either a highlander or a riff-raff string note? Some have tried answering this question by including the 'Concerto' in the uniform philosophical line marked by the 'Symphony no. 3' and the psalm 'Beatus Vir' ".
It was Górecki himself who may have given the best answer, calling his Concerto a 'prank' (sic!). One cannot help finishing by quoting the opinion - incredulous yet very true - of Teresa Malecka, another fan of Górecki's:
"Short, neat, instrumentally impressive. One feels tempted to say that this is a piece of light music, pleasant to listen to and, to my mind, satisfying to play. Given Górecki's music of recent years, this work makes one surprised and shy. After his Symphonies No. 2 and 3, after 'Beatus Vir', those greatest and most significant works of Polish music, here comes this striking 'trinket' ".
Prepared by the Polish Music Information Center, Polish Composers' Union, November 2001.