As context for this modern symphonic masterpiece, investigate the nearly inconceivable atrocities committed against Poland during World War II by Hitler's and Stalin's regimes, encompassing efforts by both aggressors to destroy Polish nationhood. Learn about Henryk Gorecki's life in wartime and in the repressive era that followed, and hear the sublimely beautiful Symphony of Sorrowful Songs" that expresses the Polish experience through sung prayers and folk songs about mothers and the loss of their children."