The Nonesuch Journal continues its five-part series of videos marking the forthcoming release of Henryk Górecki: A Nonesuch Retrospective, a seven-disc box set containing all Nonesuch recordings of Górecki works, as well as the first recording of the late composer's final work, Symphony No. 4, Tansman Episodes, on Friday, January 22.

In the third video in the series, which began last week with interviews with the late composer and his son Mikolaj, we hear from Adrian Thomas, an Emeritus Professor of Music at Cardiff University School of Music, who was Head of Music at BBC Radio 3 when Nonesuch first released Górecki’s famed Symphony No. 3 in 1992, and is the author of the book Górecki (1997).

In the interview, Thomas discusses his mentorship under Henryk Górecki and the circumstances that led to Górecki's son Mikolaj's completing Symphony No. 4 following his father's death. Thomas also relates his own journey—literal and figurative—of writing the liner notes for the first recording of the piece and the program notes for its premiere performance, while on a thousand-mile walk across France.

"What you get in this Fourth Symphony is pretty much the widest range of Henryk's character," says Thomas in the video. "I think he had very broad interests in terms of what constitutes the mind, what constitutes the spirit, what constitutes the soul, and that can involve earthy things as well as ethereal things, and this is what you get in the Fourth Symphony."

Watch the interview here:

To pre-order Symphony No. 4, Henryk Górecki: A Nonesuch Retrospective, and the Symphony No. 3 vinyl, visit the Nonesuch Store now.