Andrzej Panufnik (1914-1991)

[madaboutmahler]

A friend played me the Lullaby yesterday and I was blown away. One of the most gorgeous yet haunting pieces I have heard in ages, almost reminded me of a Schnittke-esque atmosphere. Loved it.
Listened to Autumn Music since, also lovely, and the Tragic Overture which was very exciting with that relentless rhythmic motif. Very excited to continue exploring..

[Mirror Image]

A friend played me the Lullaby yesterday and I was blown away. One of the most gorgeous yet haunting pieces I have heard in ages, almost reminded me of a Schnittke-esque atmosphere. Loved it.
Listened to Autumn Music since, also lovely, and the Tragic Overture which was very exciting with that relentless rhythmic motif. Very excited to continue exploring..

Autumn Music is my favorite work by Panufnik. I think he's an incredibly uneven composer. I tend to like his earlier works a lot more than his later works, which tend to rely too heavily on some kind of gimmick. Not to my taste at all.

[madaboutmahler]

Autumn Music is my favorite work by Panufnik. I think he's an incredibly uneven composer. I tend to like his earlier works a lot more than his later works, which tend to rely too heavily on some kind of gimmick. Not to my taste at all.

Ah! Do you know the Lullaby, John? I was so stunned by this piece.

[Mirror Image]

Ah! Do you know the Lullaby, John? I was so stunned by this piece.

Yep, Lullaby is a nice work indeed, Daniel. It's a late 40s work, so it's apart of his early oeuvre.

[San Antone]

Andrzej Panufnik : Born in Warsaw on 24th September 1914



"In all my works, I attempt to achieve a true balance between feeling and intellect, heart and brain, impulse and design."

Andrzej Panufnik is one of the most important and original symphonic composers of the 2nd half of the 20th century. His output includes ten symphonies, with Centenary commissions from Sir Georg Solti for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Seiji Ozawa for Boston.



RTRH

[Scion7]

    ç1975       

[Scion7]

The last work written by Panufnik before leaving Poland is the short, artistically not very distinguished Quintet for Woodwinds. Composed in 1952 it was Performed in Warsaw in 1953 and published by PWM Edition in 1954, however, after moving to England, Panufnik did not include it in the catalog of his compositions, and it was not until after his death That his wife, looking through his papers, came across the manuscript of the work with a changed title - Quintetto Accademico (the change of title would confirm That the composer regarded the piece as a kind of exercise). The score and the voices were prepared for publication by Panufnik's daughter, Roxanna, and in 1999 the quintet was published by the composer's publisher, Boosey & Hawkes.

Quintetto Accademico is written for flute, oboe, two clarinets and bassoon; it Consists of three movements: Prelude, Old Polish Triptych and Postlude. One again, the composer uses themes from early Polish music. Like the Old Polish Suite and Concerto in Modo Antico , the quintet has a simplified texture, archaizing harmony and simple, diatonic melody. The outer movements are figurative and use similar musical material. When it comes to the formal structure of the piece, the composer Provides a formal "framework" for it (a device he often used in his works), Minogue in the last two bars of the Postlude exactly the same material from the first two bars of the Prelude, but reversed ( "mirror reflection").
The use of mirror symmetry testifies to the composer's growing interest in the possibilities provided by the Principles of symmetry in the construction of musical works. With time symmetry Became the basic determinants of the formal as well as the melodic-harmonic structure of Panufnik's works.

LINK for low-quality sound file:  http://nina.pd.e54-po.insyscd.net/panufnik-kwintet-na-flet-oboj-2-klarnety-i-fagot-pc-966.m4a

original title: Quintetto academico

1. Quasi Preludio
2. Old Polish Triptych
3. Postlude

year of completion: 1952
instrumentation: flute, oboe, 2 clarinets, bassoon
performer: Polska Orkiestra Radiowa
genre/form:quintet
category:instrumental music, chamber works
musician:Henryk Bartnikowski (flute), Ludwik Szymański (oboe), Ludwik Kurkiewicz (clarinet), Michał Podsiadły (clarinet), Benedykt Górecki (bassoon)
producer: Polskie Radio
production year: 1954

premiere: Warsaw, 1953

[Scion7]

The (early) piano trio by Panufnik is also pretty good!  Click to enlarge - the info came from Google books or Amazon - I forget now, it's been a few weeks.    

[Maciek]

I've recently learned that Krzysztof Rzączyński's documentary My Father, the Iron Curtain and Me is available on the NInA Panufnik site ("available" in the sense "viewable online for free"):
http://ninateka.pl/kolekcje/en/panufnik/movie/tata-zza-zelaznej-kurtyny-krzysztof-rzaczynski

I found it very moving and it's one of the best documentaries about musicians that I have seen lately. I think Jem (Jeremy) Panufnik is an excellent narrator, one whom it is easy to empathize with. This isn't by any means a straightforward biographical documentary - a lot of it is devoted to the exploration of a father son relationship and it also touches on general questions of the meaning of art and creativity.

So a heads up. NInA is on the verge of being dismantled or at least reorganized, and I've heard all sorts of speculation about the future of these sites, so there's no telling how long the film will stay up there. (And even if nothing much changes at NInA, there's still no telling how long that particular film will be available on their site.)

[Cato]

Checking on recordings, I found this on Amazon:

[asin]B010GJTWNA[/asin]


The "product description" also had one of the more ridiculous sentences I have ever seen about any work:

...The symphony achieves its supreme sound quality through the combination of various groups of instruments, with Panufnik allowing each grouping to convey humanity and an intense, profound musicianship.

Sigh!  So the composer "allows" the orchestra to do those curious things!

[Maciek]

Oh, and on the PolMIC Panufnik site you can listen to the Sinfonia Sacra along with the score. There's an annoying, distracting pink stripe that was probably meant to be synchronized with the music, but with a little practice it's possible to ignore it:
http://www.panufnik.polmic.pl/index.php/en/sinfonia-sacra

(I know you can sometimes get this sort of thing on Youtube, but with contemporary music I doubt the legality of most of those videos.)

[snyprrr]

Yep, Lullaby is a nice work indeed, Daniel. It's a late 40s work, so it's apart of his early oeuvre.

Ah! Do you know the Lullaby, John? I was so stunned by this piece.

Seems very advanced for the 40s ... not the "piece", but all the "fuzz" composed around it... it definitely has a hallucinatory quality... yes, very S ???chnittke... quite bizasrre... what?, a lullaby for the devil???

cree=pee!!

checking out Autumn Music now... sounds "normal", ha

[snyprrr]

Seems very advanced for the 40s ... not the "piece", but all the "fuzz" composed around it... it definitely has a hallucinatory quality... yes, very S ???chnittke... quite bizasrre... what?, a lullaby for the devil???

cree=pee!!

checking out Autumn Music now... sounds "normal", ha

ok, he lost me at the introduction of the typewriter/woodpecker percussion ... now I'm in the "low piano tone" section... massive bloodloss of enthusiasm now... draining quickly.... makes me want to hear some Ives

[Maciek]

The "product description" also had one of the more ridiculous sentences I have ever seen about any work:

Actually, that's a more or less direct quote from the composer's notes to the score. Of course, the crux is the "more or less", as the sense has been obfuscated, disfigured through some slight alterations to the text and the removal of the original context. A bit odd not to credit the composer, anyway.
Here's how it went originally (I'm quoting from the Boosey and Hawkes site - http://www.boosey.com/shop/work-info/Andrzej-Panufnik-Symphony-10/6076, IIRC the score only had the first paragraph? - I'll check in a minute):

My first thought was to write a show-piece with virtuoso pyrotechnics to take fullest advantage of the celebrated technical possibilities of the Orchestra. However, I eventually decided that the best homage to these brilliant players would be a symphony which, through various combinations of groups of instruments, would demonstrate their supreme sound quality, show off their collective musicianship and humanity, and their ability to convey their intense and profound feeling.

[snyprrr]

thing with panufnik is, I can always go from one unsatisfying experience with him, to another, and another... I feel like it's half way between two unsatisfying poles, taking this and that and this (MI's "gimmicks"?)...

All I've ever kept of his is the 'Votiva', mostly because it's with that Sessions, on Hyperion,... and I went about trying to find more that was like that, until, probably documented in this Thread, I realized 'Votiva' might be the best it got for me


Now listening to Symphony 3... Solti... is this the 'Sacra' that was on Nonesuch? (another highly touted album that just poured off of me like milk)... yea, I remember this opening fanfare, brutal allegro, religious ending...bing bam boom... 1 2 3... A B C...

is Panufnik too "easy" for us meat eaters? There's definitely something ALWAYS missing... it's like he should be Penderecki, or Dutilleux, or Lutoslawski, or someone, something like that, but... The Grande Meh...

too soft... too noisy... too complex... too pat...


yukk... do not want...

broccoli

[Cato]

Actually, that's a more or less direct quote from the composer's notes to the score. Of course, the crux is the "more or less", as the sense has been obfuscated, disfigured through some slight alterations to the text and the removal of the original context. A bit odd not to credit the composer, anyway.
Here's how it went originally (I'm quoting from the Boosey and Hawkes site - http://www.boosey.com/shop/work-info/Andrzej-Panufnik-Symphony-10/6076, IIRC the score only had the first paragraph? - I'll check in a minute):

NOW it makes much more sense!  The word "homage" takes care of it all! 0:)

[Maciek]

(I'm quoting from the Boosey and Hawkes site - http://www.boosey.com/shop/work-info/Andrzej-Panufnik-Symphony-10/6076, IIRC the score only had the first paragraph? - I'll check in a minute):

I just checked: the printed edition of the score doesn't have the 2nd and 3rd paragraphs of the Composer's Notes given on the Boosey & Hawkes site. Disappointingly enough, it has no diagram either (and I can't find one on the Panufnik site they link to).

[vandermolen]

thing with panufnik is, I can always go from one unsatisfying experience with him, to another, and another... I feel like it's half way between two unsatisfying poles, taking this and that and this (MI's "gimmicks"?)...

All I've ever kept of his is the 'Votiva', mostly because it's with that Sessions, on Hyperion,... and I went about trying to find more that was like that, until, probably documented in this Thread, I realized 'Votiva' might be the best it got for me


Now listening to Symphony 3... Solti... is this the 'Sacra' that was on Nonesuch? (another highly touted album that just poured off of me like milk)... yea, I remember this opening fanfare, brutal allegro, religious ending...bing bam boom... 1 2 3... A B C...

is Panufnik too "easy" for us meat eaters? There's definitely something ALWAYS missing... it's like he should be Penderecki, or Dutilleux, or Lutoslawski, or someone, something like that, but... The Grande Meh...

too soft... too noisy... too complex... too pat...


yukk... do not want...

broccoli

I see what you mean although I rather like the 'Rustica' and 'Sacra' symphonies.

[Mirror Image]

The only work from Panufnik that had any kind of impact on me was his Autumn Music, but I do find Katyń Epitaph quite moving as well.

[lescamil]

I am quite a large fan of Panufnik's final symphonies. I love that his sense of form and harmony was structed around his famous 3 note cell and his geometric shapes. You can ignore all that and it still makes perfect sense. Sad to see so many haters of his late work but it appeals to me.