Steve - finally caught up with your review and was so moved by it I have
ordered the recording.  I can well understand your earlier point in the
review about how many composers have tried to compose something worthy
of memorializing the Holocaust and have failed.  I recall a piece by a
Canadian composer, last name Moravec, who did a Holocaust cantata which we
heard premiered here at the Fairmont Temple some years ago, which left no
impression during or after the performance.  Worthy intentions do not a
worthy masterpiece make, alas.

You mention Britten in the list of composers - are you referring to the War
Requiem? I don't see this as being specifically a Holocaust composition.
On the subject of Gorecki and this 3rd symphony, did you ever see a program
on him in the South Bank series from England.  A mix of interviews with him
and cuts to Upshaw/Zinman making the recording, interspersed with the most
horrific concentration camp footage I'd yet seen (and I've seen my fair
share).  It was the music that made it possible to even look at these
scenes and I understood finally what he was trying to do -- and in my book
achieving.  That work is not something I'd spin regularly on the turntable,
as it were, but of all the music I've heard that tries to come to grips
with that monumental desecration of humanity, the Gorecki succeeds the
most.  And its enormous world wide success with such a crossover audience
says that lots of others feel the same way.  It resonates, as in a weird
parallel, so does Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan," his homage to WWII
films that tries to make some sense of that war for a contemporary audience
50 years removed from those events.

So thanks again for your thoughtful and persuasive review.  I'll let you
know how I react to it.

All the best,

Eric