1 Movement 1: Andante rubato, con devozione  [13'57]
2 Movement 2: Allegro assai, con passione  [8'05]

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Seiji Ozawa (conductor)

A complex work inspired by a combination of cultural vectors, Panufnik's eighth symphony is after all geometrically constructed, in his own words, ".. by fitting it into a circle, and I chose the number 8 (this being my eighth symphony) as a guiding principle for its internal geometry." Written in 1980 and 1981 during the revolt of Polish shipyard workers in Gdansk, it is a spiritual and patriotic offering - a votive to the miraculous icon of the Black Madonna of Czestochowa, the composer's home town. He describes the work nonetheless as an abstract work.

While this may elude the listener, the work plays out in two movements, the first of which, a fourteen minute Andante rubato con devozione, begins with plaintive woodwind solos which accept the support of a stepping vibraphone. As the principals of the string sections contribute, the work takes on a sort of contemplative, eerie glow. The pattern is repeated with the various brass instruments, followed by sections of the orchestra entering as groups. The movement closes softly with a serene passage by eleven solo string players.

The second movement, an eight minute Allegro assai con passione, is more brisk and aggressive in nature and is described by the composer as "an earnest petition". It begins with a jagged, brittle riff in the brass and high percussion and allows a singing string theme to enter and pass through. The movement builds through discordant fanfares and sawing arcs to a series of zagging, intense outbursts from all choirs of the large orchestra. The ending is highly dramatic and features strident brass and percussion.

Significant as a nationalistic yet abstract symphonic work geometrically constructed, the piece contains discernible themes and rhythms and does in fact have the effect of inspiring and disturbing the attentive listener. For its severity, it is, in a word, musical. ---Michael Morrison, Rovi

Mimo, iż SINFONIA VOTIVA Panufnika dedykowana jest Bostońskiej Orkiestrze, na jej powstanie miały też wpływ wydarzenia w Polsce z początku lat osiemdziesiątych. Kompozytor, głęboko przejęty dramatycznymi wieściami z ojczystego kraju, postanowił, że utwór będzie rodzajem jego dziękczynnej (vel wotywnej - stąd tytuł kompozycji) ofiary dla Czarnej Madonny z Jasnej Góry. Na rok 1982 zaplanowano bowiem uroczyste obchody 600 lat pobytu cudownego obrazu w polskim klasztorze. Pierwsza z dwóch części SINFONII przybrała ostatecznie kształt modlitwy z cytatami z BOGURODZICY i nawiązaniami do brzmienia chorału gregoriańskiego. Druga, zdecydowanie odmienna w charakterze od poprzedniej -gwałtowna, dynamiczna, pełna dysonansów, wyraża protest Panufnika przeciwko wydarzeniom, mającym miejsce w Polsce. Cały utwór zaświadcza głęboki związek emocjonalny kompozytora, na stałe przebywającego w Anglii, ze swoją opuszczoną ojczyzną. --- culture.pl

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1. Gothic Concerto for trumpet, two harps, harpsichord & and string orchestra (1951)

Stanisław Dziewior – trumpet
Narodowa Orkiestra Symfoniczna Polskiego Radia
Tomasz Bugaj - conductor

Cello Concerto (1991)
2. Adagio
3. Vivace

Mstislav Rostropovich - wiolonczela
London Symphony Orchestra
Hugh Wolff - conductor

Piano Concerto (1962)
4. I. Entrata (Moderately fast)
5. II. Larghetto molto tranquillo (very slow)
6. III. Presto molto agitato (very fast)

Ewa Pobłocka - piano
London Symphony Orchestra
Andrzej Panufnik – conductor

Born in Warsaw, Andrzej Panufnik started to compose aged nine. He graduated from the Warsaw Conservatoire with Distinctions in composition and conducting, increasing his classical repertoire as a favoured pupil of Felix Weingartner at the Vienna Academy, then studying impressionist composers with Philippe Gaubert in Paris, with further music explorations in London. At the outbreak of World War II he returned to Warsaw to look after his parents. In Nazi-occupied Poland, with public concerts banned, he played the piano in “artistic cafés”, collaborating with Witold Lutosławski, and with his Jewish violinist friend Tadeusz Geisler until the Ghetto was enclosed. Despite the terror on the streets of Warsaw, he also conducted illegal and charity concerts, and composed resistance songs, including the famous Warszawskie Dzieci. During the War he lost most of his closest relatives, and all the compositions of his first 30 years were destroyed in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.

After the war, Panufnik became chief conductor of the Kraków Philharmonic and then the Warsaw Philharmonic, appearing as a guest conductor with the leading European orchestras. In those early post-war years he won international admiration and honours in his own country, the originality of his 1940s works placing him as the “father” of the Polish avant garde. After 1949, however, with the imposition of Soviet Socialist Realism, the situation changed dramatically. Stultified as a composer, unwilling to write the music the authorities required, in 1954 he left Poland as a protest against the controls over creative artists, resulting in total censorship of his name and his music for 23 years. He settled in England, Boosey & Hawkes became his publishers, and from 1957 to 1959 he was appointed musical director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, his last official position before deciding to dedicate his life entirely to composition. He took British nationality in 1961. At last unfettered by politics or conducting, the subsequent years became the most freely creative of his life.

Eventually, from 1977, Panufnik works were performed annually on the insistence of the Polish composers in the ever-innovatory Warsaw Autumn Festival. In 1990, when democracy was restored, he made a momentous return to Poland to conduct his music at the Warsaw Autumn. Panufnik’s autobiography, Composing Myself, was published in 1987. He received a British knighthood in January 1991, the year of his death, and a posthumous Order of Polonia Restituta from President Lech Walesa in Poland.

Panufnik’s oeuvre includes ten symphonies, with centenary commissions from Solti in Chicago and Ozawa in Boston, and three commissions from the London Symphony Orchestra who also recorded much of his work. Menuhin commissioned his Violin Concerto, Rostropovitch his Cello Concerto (with the LSO), the Royal Philharmonic Society his Ninth Symphony. As well as four concertos, he composed three string quartets, three cantatas and many works for string ensembles. Choreographers of his music include Martha Graham and Kenneth MacMillan. --- naxos.com

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1. 3 Visions 10:39
2. Hymn 9:35
3. I. Andante Moderato 3:10          play
4. II. Allegretto 2:36
5. III. Andante Con Moto 4:24
6. IV. Prestissimo Possibile 1:47
7. V. Moderato 4:32
8. VI. Lento-Moderato-Vivacissimo 2:22
9. VII. Larghetto 4:39
10.VIII. Molto Allegro 1:50          play
11. IX. Andantino 3:33
12. X. Molto Vivace 2:17
13.Arbor Cosmica: Xi. Adagietto 6:01
14. XII. Presto 1:26

1 – 2 Sinfonia Sacra
Concertgebow Orchestra, Amsterdam
Andrzej Panufnik – conductor

3 – 14 Arbor Cosmica
New York Chamber Symphony 
Andrzej Panufnik – conductor

I'm not all that familiar with the output of Andrej Panufnik, although I've heard recently and reviewed a number of his Symphonies, including Sinfonia Elegiaca (#2), Sinfonia Votiva (#8), Sinfonia di Sfere (#5) and Mistica (#6). I tend to categorize him among the "mildly modern" composers from the second half of the 20th Century, not belonging to the avant-garde, and certainly less advanced in his musical language and less original than his two compatriots Penderecki (the composer of the 1960s and early 1970s at least) and Lutoslawski, but not either a backward-looking neo-Romantic. I've also found that he got better as he aged. Sinfonia Elegiaca (1957) I found rather clichéd and bombastic, striving a little too hard for effect and using to that end very predictable musical resources (see my review of Andrzej Panufnik: Nocturn / Rhapsody / Symphony 2). On the other hand Symphonies 5 & 6 (1975, 1977) are two superb compositions, organizing a highly efficient architecture of tension and repose, couched in a highly dramatic but accessible language and full of ear-catching orchestral touches (Panufnik: Sinfonia Mistica, Sinfonia di Sfere). Likewise the 8th (1981) is is a haunting work, in the austere sparseness and delicacy of its instrumentation and stylistic independence of its language (Symphony 8 / Concerto for Orchestra or Andrzej Panufnik: Sinfonia Votiva (Symphony No. 8) / Roger Sessions: Concerto for Orchestra - Boston Symphony Orchestra).

Sinfonia Sacra is Panufnik's 3rd Symphony and dates from 1963. It is a tribute to Poland's millennium "of Christianity and Statehood". It is apparently its composer's most popular symphony, if the number of recordings is to serve as a pointer: listed on this site are recent recordings by Gerard Schwarz (Andrzej Panufnik: Symphony No. 10 (World Premier Recording) / Autumn Music / Heroic Overture / Sinfonia Sacra - Seattle Symphony), John Storgards (Panufnik: Heroic Overture; Sinfonia de Sfere; Landscape; Sinfonia Sacra [Hybrid SACD]) and even another, earlier composer-conducted one, with the Monte Carlo Symphony Orchestra, initially on Unicorn Andrzej Panufnik: Sinfonia Sacra / Concerto Festivo / Landscape / Katyn Epitaph / Concertino - Monte Carlo Opera Orchestra / London Symphony Orchestra / Andrzej Panufnik, but now best found on an EMI "British Composers" UK release, paired with Sinfonia Rustica (1st Symphony) and Sinfonia Concertante (4th Symphony), not listed on this site but available as ASIN B000E5L84S on its European sister companies.

Still, it took me a few hearings to warm up to it. As with other Panufnik symphonies, I found its architecture somewhat simplistic and its musical resources rather unsubtle, going a little too much for immediate effect not to elicit some resistance. The first movement is made of three strongly contrasted "visions": a grandiose brass fanfare evoking some biblical call to arms, a serene, brooding cantilena intoned from hushed strings, and a percussion-introduced, turbulent, violently agitated conclusion symbolising, no doubt, the calamities that beset Poland throughout its History. The second movement is an extended "hymn", an elaboration of the Bogurodzica, the oldest Gergorian hymn in Polish language: hushed strings, high-pitched harmonics, mystic atmosphere, whiffs of the monastery heard from a distance, rising to a climax of triumphant and lyrical intensity. It may strive for predictable effect, but ultimately the effect is hard to resist.

But the real masterpiece here is Arbor Cosmica (Cosmic Tree). Composed in 1983, i is a suite of 12 pieces, scored for 12 strings. That they are evocation of trees, all based on a three-note chord mapped like a tree and all symbolically elaborated so that a melody in the highest violin registers will flow down to the bass while the accompaniment will "photosynthesise up from the lowest range (the roots) to the upper strings", is ultimately anecdotal. What counts is the mesmerizing wealth of invention, the constant ear-catching and never-predictable twists and turns of orchestral colors, the variety of moods conjured, the breathtaking dramatic impact. Arbor Cosmica must be counted among the 20th-century masterpieces for string ensemble.

The recordings were made in 1987 and 1988 and the readings, under the conductor's stewardship and with major ensembles (no less than the Amsterdam Concertgebouw in Sinfonia Sacra) are, needless to say, authoritative. –Discophage (France)

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Andrzej Panufnik
Piano Concerto 1961
1. Entrata
2. Molto tranquillo – atacca
3. Molto agitato

Witold Lutosławski
Piano Concerto 1987
1. ca 110 – atacca
2. Presto – atacca
3. ca 85 – atacca
4 ca 84

Pawel Szymański
Piano Concerto 1994


Ewa Poblocka - piano
National Philharmonic Orchestra - Warsaw
Kazimierz Kord

After successful but isolated attempts in the genre by Chopin, Paderewski, and Szymanowski (to be precise, the latter only wrote a Sinfonia Concertante), the piano concerto seems to be back in favor among Polish composers. Andrzej Panufnik's Concerto, dated 1961, pays a heavy tribute to Bartók through the percussive solo writing, the energetic gestures of the Entrata, and the drawn out night music of the central movement. A virtuoso Toccata-like finale adds a bit of jazzy wit. Oddly enough, its quasi-mechanical rhythmic patterns seem to conjure the ghost of Ravel's G major concerto finale. Those familiar with Witold Lutoslawski's luscious orchestral style will find themselves in well-known territory with his Piano Concerto (1987), written for Krystian Zimerman. Articulated in four medium-sized movements, the piece builds up dramatic tension by the repetition of short atonal cells full of rhythmic energy. A sharply colored but flexible orchestration constantly supports the bold solo piano part. This work may not be the ultimate emotional listening experience, but its mystery and the efficient writing are nonetheless fascinating.

Less known than his two colleagues, Pawel Szymanski (born 1954) opens his Piano Concerto (1994) with a kind of "deconstructed" polyphony "à la Bach", something like an extravagant cross between Nancarrow's Studies for player piano and Busoni's Fantasia nach J.S. Bach. Throughout the piece, strange instrumental effects and dislocated rhythms separated by abysmal pauses create an atmosphere of dreamy, sometimes spooky suspense. It looks like Szymanski is trying to turn the piano concerto tradition upside down, and he's quite successful at it. The performances are ideally powerful and accurate, and so is the recording. [3/12/2000] --Luca Sabbatini, Classics Today

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Sinfonia Mistica (1977)
1. Molto Andante
2. Molto Allegro (Fig.5)
3. Molto Allegro (Fig.19)
4. Molto Allegro (Fig. 32)

Sinfonia di Sfere (1975)
5. Poco Andante
6. Poco Allegro (Fig.9)
7. Poco Andante (Fig.16)
8. Andante (Fig.25)
9. Molto Andante (Fig.50)
10. Molto Allegro (Fig.65) 

London Symphony Orchestra, 
David Atherton  - director

Panufnik is memorable, at the most trivial of levels, for music that is either extremely quiet or very loud. There is of course a lot more to him than that but it is one of his aural ‘signatures’. These two symphonies of the 1970s continue the pattern. They each owe something to either mathematics or geometry … and that is not, in this case, a cue for music enthusiasts to exeunt omnes.

The Sinfonia Mistica explores the mysteries of the number six and happens to be the composer's Sixth Symphony. It is a work of spare sounds - minimalist but in a non-Reich sense. This is a work of long and measured paragraphs in which mysteries appears to open before the meditative listener. There is a great lyrical theme in the final irresistibly surging section contrasting with the reverential whisper of the opening four minutes. If you know his hallmark works of the 1950s and 1960s (e.g. Sinfonia Elegiaca, Sinfonia Sacra and Heroic Overture) the pace and contours of this hymnal theme will be instantly familiar. Under that arching and potent oratory the orchestra chatters in thrumming mitrailleuse triads related to the same chatter in the second track where basses, horns, bassoons and clarinets batter away in iterative fury.

The Sinfonia di Sfere (No. 5) is helpfully tracked in six sections. We are told that it is shaped by faithful adherence to symmetry but the composer recommended that such analysis should be studied after the work has been heard. The pained insistence of the searing and searching violins leads into a soliloquy for solo trumpet. This is no harangue but music played as if in prayer. The wandering lead thus offered is then taken up by the horn. Chattering woodwind and spatially separated drumming from a variety of instruments give the work forward momentum. This dynamism is short-lived rather like the hell-bent Blitzkrieg of the middle movement of Sinfonia Elegiaca – also typically flanked by two big quiet movements. Orchestral piano plays its role in the Sinfonia di Sfere at various points including during the second Poco andante and the following Andante which at times has a lightly dissonant Bachian feeling. This is again relieved by antiphonal writing for drums. There is a wildness in this writing even if you are also conscious of patterning (3:30 in the andante in tr. 8). Panufnik had an affection for drums (timps, side-drum, tom-tom) and they appear in aggressive spaced-out counter-volleying in the Molto andante which also has massed strings that stab, shriek and surge over and through the cannonade. This assault continues into the Molto allegro finale which ends amid slammed-out, hammered, fast-thrusting protests: part-groan, part-roar.

The concise notes are by Antony Hopkins the composer and music writer. I presume that these two works featured in his BBC 'Talking About Music series'. It is a pity that they do not give details about the premieres.

You can read more about these two symphonies in Paul Conway’s superb survey of the Panufnik symphonies. The CD booklet contains notes in English, French and German. Each symphony is laid out on the disc in separately tracked sections: four for Mistica and six for di Sfere.

This is a most valuable addition to the catalogue. Congratulations to Raymond McGill of Explore for striking the deal with Decca to bring this exemplary analogue recording back into the catalogue. We can now appreciate Panufnik's two late symphonies (five and six of a total complement of ten if we also count the lost Symphony of Peace and the first two symphonies) as works articulate through both spiritual concentration and extreme violence. ---Rob Barnett, musicweb-international.com

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Andrzej Panufnik
Twelve Miniature Studies (1947, rev. 1955/64)
1. I. Sempre fortissimo e molto veloce 
2. II. Sempre pianissimo e molto legato 
3. III. Sempre fortissimo e molto marcato 
4. IV. Sempre pianissimo e molto tranquillo 
5. V. Sempre fortissimo e molto agitato 
6. VI. Sempre pianissimo e molto cantabile 
7. VII. Sempre fortissimo, senza pedale e molto secco 
8. VIII. Sempre pianissimo, con pedale e molto espressivo
9. IX. Sempre fortissimo e molto appassionato 
10. X. Sempre pianissimo e molto dolce
11. XI. Sempre fortissimo e molto veloce 
12. XII. Pianissimo e crescendo poco a poco il fortissimo

Hommage à Chopin (1949, rev. 1955), arr. Roxanna Panufnik
13. No.1. Andante 
14. No.4. Vivo 
15. No.5. Andante 

16. Pentasonata (1984) 
17. Modlitwa (‘Prayer’) (1990/99), arr. Roxanna Panufnik 

Roxanna Panufnik
18. Second Home (2003, rev. 2006)
19. Glo (2002) 

Andrzej Panufnik
20. Reflections (1968)

Clare Hammond – piano

An exciting pianist and an avid explorer of new and unusual repertoire, Clare Hammond has performed and recorded piano works that are off the beaten path or have special need of a champion. Hammond was an active participant in many activities in the 2014 centennial celebrations of composer Andrzej Panufnik, and this album of the solo piano music of Panufnik and his daughter, Roxanna Panufnik, is one of the fruits of her labors. Andrzej Panufnik was not a prolific composer for piano, and only three of the selections on this BIS hybrid SACD are his alone, the 12 Miniature Studies, Pentasonata, and Reflections; the remaining pieces were a collaboration with Roxanna, Modlitwa (Prayer), and an arrangement by her, Hommage à Chopin, as well as her own keyboard pieces, Second Home and Glo. The performances are sympathetic and intensely virtuosic, often with dazzling runs across the keyboard, and Hammond is as comfortable with Andrzej's complex chromatic atonality as she is with Roxanna's modified and understated tonality. The super audio reproduction captures the brilliance of the playing, with sparkling high notes and a reverberant bass. ---Blair Sanderson, AllMusic Review

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