Andrzej Panufnik (1914-1991)

[Mirror Image]

I'm new to this site and couldn't find anything. You old hands know all the tricks!

It's okay Cassandra, when I first joined I made many of the same mistakes. Some composers are hard to find in searches because their names are associated with other words like, for example, Schoenberg's Sheen, Leo's Lair or Salonen's Helix.

[Dundonnell]

Not quite sure which thread to post in now

Better be the old one..with all respect to cassandra.

(Polite suggestion-why not merge the two threads for convenience?)

[Dundonnell]

I entirely agree with what lescamil says

I am very much looking forward to the forthcoming issuing of Metasinfonia, which I haven't heard for many, many years.

I recall a thread about Panufnik on the Chandos forum some time ago suggesting that Chandos record the symphonies. The response from a record industry 'insider' was that no record company would look at this because the cds wouldn't sell! Well that doesn't seem to have stopped CPO(God bless them!). Nor indeed has it stopped Chandos currently giving us all the Violin Concerti of Grazyna Bacewicz!!

Panufnik is just the sort of serious, tough but not too rebarbative composer I like

[snyprrr]

Oh Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease 'o' gods of GMG merge these two Threads before my eyeballs explode!!!!

Seriously,... this will constipate me.

[cilgwyn]

Yeah,don't worry about it,Cassandra. 'Ee's up 'ere and 'ees down there (that's the one!).
Oh,and by the way,what IS Schoenberg's sheen?!!! (Shome mishtake,ed?!).
(I must admit,I never knew Bach had a bungalow until I joined the gmg. Learn something new every day!!!)

[lescamil]

Just thought I'd resurrect this thread by saying that the 4th volume of CPO's Panufnik survey has come out, and I have already snapped it up. I haven't listened to it all, but I did make sure to check out the recording of Symphony No. 10 on it. This is the most detailed recording of the three commercially available recordings out there. Borowicz just shows how excellent of a conductor he is here. I think the Presto section could be a hair faster (like Schwarz), but it is still an excellent recording that I think does what Panufnik intended it to do -  it is a celebration of the modern orchestra. That ending adagio with the harp, a few woodwinds, and divisi strings is simply sublime. I will possibly report back on the other two symphonies featured. I am excited to hear the Sinfonia Elegiaca here, which is the first recording of the final version (an earlier version was recorded on the Louisville Orchestra series), and the first ever stereo recording of the work. Sinfonia Sacra already has a ton of recordings (well, a ton for a Panufnik work), so this will be last. There's something about that percussion laden Vision III (with that awesome timpani glissando) that keeps me coming back to it, heh.

[Mirror Image]

I recall a thread about Panufnik on the Chandos forum some time ago suggesting that Chandos record the symphonies. The response from a record industry 'insider' was that no record company would look at this because the cds wouldn't sell! Well that doesn't seem to have stopped CPO(God bless them!).

Ha! My sentiments exactly. I bought Volume 4 of the CPO series tonight. Can't wait to hear it.

[Elnimio]

I like Tragic Overture as well, quite a banger of a piece. Haven't really familiarized myself enough with his other works, of which I have a few.

[Dundonnell]

I have recently had the opportunity to download the premiere performance(or at least a very early performance from 1951) of the Symphony of Peace, for reciter, chorus and orchestra. This is the work which Panufnik withdrew and from which he used material for the Sinfonia Elegiaca. Panufnik evidently regarded the Symphony of Peace as too long and unbalanced. This despite the protests of Leopold Stokowski who gave the work its first performance in the USA in Detroit. In fact the Symphony is only around 28 minutes long and is to my ears a most beautiful and moving work.

[jlaurson]

Dip Your Ears, No. 114


A.Panufnik , Sinf.Mistica et al.,
L.Borowicz / Polish RSO
cpo
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/04/dip-your-ears-no-114.html

[Cato]

Dip Your Ears, No. 114


A.Panufnik , Sinf.Mistica et al.,
L.Borowicz / Polish RSO
cpo
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/04/dip-your-ears-no-114.html

Love your comment on the infamously obtuse, opaque, and in general incomprehensible liner notes from CPO! 

[Dundonnell]

Love your comment on the infamously obtuse, opaque, and in general incomprehensible liner notes from CPO! 

In that case, get a grip on this:

"Threnodies of the strings seek despairingly to rise above the formless depths of blackly swirling masses of sound, but are interrupted again and again by powerful surges of unsettling brutality. The formal strictness of this gigantic work, with its three themes, its three-part formal layout and its powerful triple fugue exactly at its mid-point is also the expression of a pitiless implacability from which there can be no escape. The few gentle insertions - ethereal sounds of seraphic euphony - are no more than mirages in the sea of despair, sensory illusions in the apocalypse of the present: the expected catastrophe has arrived and has effortlessly surpassed the wildest expectations. The times are marked by unprecedented cruelty and lawlessness with millions of people perishing through wars and starvation. Annihilation is final and complete."


From the cd (not CPO) booklet notes for Piano Trios by Leonid Sabaneev.

[jlaurson]

In that case, get a grip on this:

"Threnodies of the strings seek despairingly to rise above the formless depths of blackly swirling masses of sound, but are interrupted again and again by powerful surges of unsettling brutality. The formal strictness of this gigantic work, with its three themes, its three-part formal layout and its powerful triple fugue exactly at its mid-point is also the expression of a pitiless implacability from which there can be no escape. The few gentle insertions - ethereal sounds of seraphic euphony - are no more than mirages in the sea of despair, sensory illusions in the apocalypse of the present: the expected catastrophe has arrived and has effortlessly surpassed the wildest expectations. The times are marked by unprecedented cruelty and lawlessness with millions of people perishing through wars and starvation. Annihilation is final and complete."


From the cd (not CPO) booklet notes for Piano Trios by Leonid Sabaneev.

I meet your "threnodies of the strings" and raise you "a primary sensitivity which would be doomed to the fatal lacerations of intensity in all its implacability, were it not entirely surrounded, enfolded, so that it registers any "impact" only as filtered, sifted. It is not yet a "skin" capable of a certain degree of self-defense." That, if you didn't figure it out naturally, was about Schubert's piano music, specifically that for four hands. Here, to clarify: "Schubert never stopped emphasizing his dream of "community." He was haunted by it throughout his life. He expresses it directly, consciously in the guise of his almost visceral attachment to all his "brothers and sisters," in a communion of the soul incorporating either explicitly or as a watermark all his ineluctable need for creativity."

Incidentally from the bloody best recording of the Fantasie in f-minor I've every heard!
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2005/03/schubert-for-two.html

[Cato]

In that case, get a grip on this:

"Threnodies of the strings seek despairingly to rise above the formless depths of blackly swirling masses of sound, but are interrupted again and again by powerful surges of unsettling brutality. The formal strictness of this gigantic work, with its three themes, its three-part formal layout and its powerful triple fugue exactly at its mid-point is also the expression of a pitiless implacability from which there can be no escape. The few gentle insertions - ethereal sounds of seraphic euphony - are no more than mirages in the sea of despair, sensory illusions in the apocalypse of the present: the expected catastrophe has arrived and has effortlessly surpassed the wildest expectations. The times are marked by unprecedented cruelty and lawlessness with millions of people perishing through wars and starvation. Annihilation is final and complete."


From the cd (not CPO) booklet notes for Piano Trios by Leonid Sabaneev.

WOW!  All I can say is: WOW!  And written without a hint of irony!

So does the music match the description?  I expect the piano explodes at the end, along with some spontaneous human combustion among the performers!   

I meet your "threnodies of the strings" and raise you "a primary sensitivity which would be doomed to the fatal lacerations of intensity in all its implacability, were it not entirely surrounded, enfolded, so that it registers any "impact" only as filtered, sifted. It is not yet a "skin" capable of a certain degree of self-defense." That, if you didn't figure it out naturally, was about Schubert's piano music, specifically that for four hands. Here, to clarify: "Schubert never stopped emphasizing his dream of "community." He was haunted by it throughout his life. He expresses it directly, consciously in the guise of his almost visceral attachment to all his "brothers and sisters," in a communion of the soul incorporating either explicitly or as a watermark all his ineluctable need for creativity."

Incidentally from the bloody best recording of the Fantasie in f-minor I've every heard!
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2005/03/schubert-for-two.html

Worthy of a trip to the woodshed of "Cato's Grammar Grumble" for a good whipping!   0:)   

[snyprrr]

I only have one Panufnik CD, but it's a cracker.

Panufnik - Sinfonia mistica; Sinfonia di sfere

This, and the EMI disc of 3 Symphonies = 1,3,4,5,6,... seem very tempting.

Can anyone give me the skinny?,... some say bombast early, dullness later... I've heard the Nonesuch (No.3)disc many moons ago, don't recall being all that fond of it,... I think I heard the Conifer (No.9 or 10)disc, I think it seemed like a long 40mins.?,... I've always had the Hyperion(No., with Sessions, and I will pull it tomorrow,... but Maciek called his music contrived, and I tend to agree... I could be swayed by a Masterpiece. I'd be willing to try 9-10 again,... that Atherton disc (5-6)...

That CPO Cycle seems largely unneeded, unless sound is the issue?

Otherwise, Autumn Music seems to be it?

[lescamil]

I wouldn't say you could say that any recording of Panufnik's music is unneeded, but many of the symphonies needed modern recordings, or, in the case of the Sinfonia Elegiaca (the final version), a recording, period. The Metasinfonia wasn't even available on CD previously. I personally have a huge affinity for his music, but I would also acknowledge that it is not for everyone. It deserves a try, though.

[snyprrr]

I wouldn't say you could say that any recording of Panufnik's music is unneeded, but many of the symphonies needed modern recordings, or, in the case of the Sinfonia Elegiaca (the final version), a recording, period. The Metasinfonia wasn't even available on CD previously. I personally have a huge affinity for his music, but I would also acknowledge that it is not for everyone. It deserves a try, though.

aaaand?,... gimme yer Top3!! I'll be pulling out the 'Votiva' today.

[snyprrr]

I wouldn't say you could say that any recording of Panufnik's music is unneeded, but many of the symphonies needed modern recordings, or, in the case of the Sinfonia Elegiaca (the final version), a recording, period. The Metasinfonia wasn't even available on CD previously. I personally have a huge affinity for his music, but I would also acknowledge that it is not for everyone. It deserves a try, though.

I listened to the Hyperion 'Votiva': it's such a subtle piece, that I had completely forgotten how it went. As 'New Music', I liked it, sounding to me like a secular Messiaen, with perhaps some Dutilleux (isn't HE the 'Secular Messiaen'? haha),... Ohana?,... anyhow, Part I was very spare and atmospheric, though Ozawa and Boston (and Hyperion engineers) need to be given proper credit. Part II was quite a bunch of cacophonous brass and percussion fanfares that won me over by the end: I especially liked the wash of cymbals, another engineering triumph.

I'm now finishing No.10(I'm not sure which recording on YT). To me, it sounds like Part II of 'Votiva' continued, a very aggressive, stabbing allegro, that almost winds down a la Pettersson, though not as melodically ornamented. I started not to like it, but, its short length (16mins. divided by four 'movements'... attacca...), and the winding down... maybe also like a much much cooler Nielsen 'Inextinguishable'?

I'm going to go give either 3 or 9 a shot next.

[snyprrr]

I wouldn't say you could say that any recording of Panufnik's music is unneeded, but many of the symphonies needed modern recordings, or, in the case of the Sinfonia Elegiaca (the final version), a recording, period. The Metasinfonia wasn't even available on CD previously. I personally have a huge affinity for his music, but I would also acknowledge that it is not for everyone. It deserves a try, though.

I listened to the first three parts of No.3('Sacra'), which starts with a fanfare reminiscent of Janacek's 'Sokol' Fanfare, followed by what sounds like the string music to Ives's Unanswered Question. Again, in the third part, I hear again those same stabbing rhythms that I heard in both 8 and 10.

I'm now in the middle of No.9 ('Sinfonia della Speranza'). AGAIN! I've heard the same rhythms as in all the other previous works. I'm going to call it the 'Tear Down This Wall'-Allegro style. I'm hearing a low wattage Robert Simpson (no cut, just not as much tension), I'm hearing the "'80s' Symphonic Sound" that I've heard in many other 'Symphonies' composed around the same time. I might like 9 better if it were Tracked.

Oh, I just had a Composer comparison that would have brought it all together... brain fart.

There is that one Composer... the Tblisi guy... 7 Symphonies, CPO and Nonesuch... Maximalist, starts with a 'K'... even though that's not of whom I was thinking.

Yea, it's very... Reaganesque-Era,... Panufnik says the 9th is about Hope, but it sounds pretty East Bloc to me: grayness punctuated by vaguely 'People-Against-Oppression' fanfares...


So far, it's the 8th for me, it seems to unify all his musical and political concerns into One Nice Postcard.

I think the Atherton recording holds the most promise for me, perhaps followed by the EMI 1/3/4. Still haven't heard Autumn Music.


Have you heard the Schwarz on JVC?

[lescamil]

The Schwarz disk on JVC is one of the best Panufnik disks. All of the performances are excellent, especially the Symphony No. 10 and Autumn Music. You should like Autumn Music. It has the same form as a lot of his mature works, but the musical ideas are quite different. It is a nice mix of his mature style and the immature style you see in the Violin Concerto and Sinfonia Elegiaca.

Also, I don't see Panufnik as being similar to Kancheli (the Georgian composer you are thinking of). Kancheli is a much more static composer, and Panufnik's music has much more movement and development.