Panufnik, Andrzej (1914 - 91)

[Thropplenoggin]

Spurred on by a review of this composer's 9th in the latest IRR (the one with Truls Mork looking like a posh serial killer on the front), I decided to investigate his music and found this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrSAFc6JzlU

Impressive stuff.

Any fans on here? Where should one begin?

[Pulcinella]

This could be an interesting, useful (and expensive!) thread.
I am a partial fan, liking some of his music a lot, but struggling with other works, so I look forward to reading contributions from other forumites.

My first introduction was, I think, the Sinfonia Sacra, though whether as a chance LP purchase or spurred by a broadcast performance (can I possibly have heard it live in Liverpool, by the RLPO, late 1960s?) I can no longer remember. I would suggest that and the Sinfonia Rustica for starters.

For what it's worth, these are the CDs I have in my collection. Some performances have since been reissued on other labels, I think (should have done some research before posting!).

Unicorn-Kanchana UKCD2016: Tragic Overture, Autumn Music, Heroic Overture, Nocturne, Sinfonia Rustica
Unicorn-Kanchana UKCD2020: Concerto Festivo, Landscape, Katyn Epitaph, Concertino, Sinfonia Sacra
Hyperion Helios CDH55100: Sinfonia Votiva (Symphony 8) [coupled with Sessions Concerto for Orchestra)
EMI CDM566121-2: Violin Concerto (coupled with those of Berkeley and Williamson)
BBC Radio Classics BBCRD9124: Sinfonia Votiva (Symphony 8) [coupled with Szymanowski]
NMC D010S: Cello Concerto

I get daunted by the complicated explanations of his compositional technique(s), so try simply to enjoy the music. But some pieces are certainly more instantly accessible (to my ears at least) than others. Despite having two recordings, I don't get much out of the Sinfonia Votiva, for example.

So, like Throppo, I'm looking forward to hearing more and to guidelines where to head.

[Roehre]

This could be an interesting, useful (and expensive!) thread.....

For what it's worth, these are the CDs I have in my collection. Some performances have since been reissued on other labels, I think (should have done some research before posting!).

Unicorn-Kanchana UKCD2016: Tragic Overture, Autumn Music, Heroic Overture, Nocturne, Sinfonia Rustica
Unicorn-Kanchana UKCD2020: Concerto Festivo, Landscape, Katyn Epitaph, Concertino, Sinfonia Sacra
Hyperion Helios CDH55100: Sinfonia Votiva (Symphony 8) [coupled with Sessions Concerto for Orchestra)
EMI CDM566121-2: Violin Concerto (coupled with those of Berkeley and Williamson)
...
NMC D010S: Cello Concerto.....

the same as I've got (originally) on my shelves.
I am planning to explore his music, as a great series of recordings of (orchestral) music, including all symphonies, is in progress.

[Pulcinella]

Have just remembered that I also used to have an LP of Universal Prayer (conducted by Stokowski): no recollection of what it is/was like!!

[Tevot]

Spurred on by a review of this composer's 9th in the latest IRR (the one with Truls Mork looking like a posh serial killer on the front), I decided to investigate his music and found this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrSAFc6JzlU

Impressive stuff.

Any fans on here? Where should one begin?

You might find this link helpful Throppers : http://panufnik.com/discography/current-releases/

A favourite of mine is the sinfonia mistica which I first heard in the early 80s. It has been reissued and can be found here:-

http://www.explorerecords.com/downloadshop/release.php?catno=0014

The only drawback for me is its coupling - the Sinfonia di Sfere - which leaves me cold I'm afraid. It is on Youtube if you wish to brave it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFORqYGxMbk

Best Wishes,

Tevot

[Ferretfancy]

The disc which includes the Violin Concerto needs to be approached with care. Although he's obviously deeply committed to the piece, I'm afraid that Menuhin's intonation
leaves a lot to be desired. The music is excellent, but we need a new recording. The Berkeley and Williamson pieces are well worth hearing.

[HighlandDougie]

Pace Tevot's comments about the Sinfonia di Sfere (quite hard work, I admit, unlike the Sinfonia Sacra), this is stunningly recorded (it's a Hybrid SACD) and well worth a listen:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000U6YJZ6/ref=dm_ws_ps_cdp?ie=UTF8&qid=1399021852&s=music&sr=1-1-catcorr

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The disc which includes the Violin Concerto needs to be approached with care. Although he's obviously deeply committed to the piece, I'm afraid that Menuhin's intonation leaves a lot to be desired. The music is excellent, but we need a new recording. The Berkeley and Williamson pieces are well worth hearing.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Violin-Concerto-Smietana/dp/B000027PXN/ref=sr_1_4?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1399021874&sr=1-4&keywords=panufnik+violin+concerto

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Andrzej-Panufnik-Arbor-Cosmica-Vi/dp/B0000589AD/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1399021874&sr=1-1&keywords=panufnik+violin+concerto

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Alexander-Sitkovetsky-Andrzej-Panufnik/dp/B00014X836/ref=sr_1_6?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1399021874&sr=1-6&keywords=panufnik+violin+concerto

[Thropplenoggin]

Thanks for all the excellent responses thus far. I'd love to hear your thoughts on Panufnik, FHG!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I'd love to hear your thoughts on Panufnik, FHG!

Well, I first encountered this Music from a broadcast when Solti conducted the ChicagoSO in a performance of the Sinfonia Sacra - still for me his best work. I also attended his 70th birthday concert with the LSO in which the composer conducted his own Sinfonia Votiva, which was a very powerful performance. He was recording a lot of his work in the mid-late '80s and I bought each release enthusiastically, but I found diminishing returns from each work: nothing less than superbly crafted, but lacking the "oomph" that I'd so responded to in those Live performances. The last CD I bought of his work was the Eloquence reissue of the Mistica and Sfere which has been mentioned, and which for a while reawakened my interest - but I find that I need to leave long gaps between listening to his work: it gets a bit "samey" for me if I hear too much of it at any one time.

Having said that, it's over ten years now since I last sat down and listened, so maybe it's time to give it another go.

[Ariosto]

Spurred on by a review of this composer's 9th in the latest IRR (the one with Truls Mork looking like a posh serial killer on the front), I decided to investigate his music and found this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrSAFc6JzlU

Impressive stuff.

Any fans on here? Where should one begin?

Oh I did work with him a bit. He was pretty good if i remember correctly, but you probably don't want to hear anything much from me.

[Thropplenoggin]

Oh I did work with him a bit. He was pretty good if i remember correctly, but you probably don't want to hear anything much from me.

Au contraire. I am very interested in your thoughts and experiences. I simply ask that you abide by the same general rule of respectful discourse as other users of this forum.

[Serial_Apologist]

I get daunted by the complicated explanations of his compositional technique(s), so try simply to enjoy the music.

From what I've heard of them, Paunfnik's compositional techniques were pretty basic, amounting to a sort of stripped down Bartok meets Copland. I concur with ferneyhoughgeliebte about sameness; one work I have a particular findness for, however, is the shortish "Autumn Music" - written in 1967 for a friend who had died about six years previously, whose title truly sums up its character.

[edashtav]

From what I've heard of them, Paunfnik's compositional techniques were pretty basic, amounting to a sort of stripped down Bartok meets Copland. I concur with ferneyhoughgeliebte about sameness; one work I have a particular findness for, however, is the shortish "Autumn Music" - written in 1967 for a friend who had died about six years previously, whose title truly sums up its character.

My enthusiasm for Panuknik's music has waned and these days I agree with ferneyhoughgeliebte thoughtful assessment of his work. S-A's comment re Panufnik's compositional primitism is spot-on, too. It's the lack of complexity and predictble, formulaic structures that lead to diminishing returns. I endorse S-A's recommendation of Autumn Music and would add a good word for the Lullaby (1947/1955) for strings that was used as a starting point by so many Polish composers looking for a new way with strings in the 1950s.

[Lat-Literal]

Ferney

Would it be possible to change the title to Panufnik, Sir Andrzej (1914-1991) because he deserves it, as you know he has a daughter who is a composer with the same surname, and as his title implies he was virtually one of ours. Quote from classical-music.com: "To describe him as a minimalist would be highly misleading, for he doesn’t browbeat with honeyed and vacuous repetition; rather, his music is characterised by an austere economy of means, developed from a small cell of notes or with a structure based round simple geometric patterns".

Perhaps. Perhaps not. It seems to me that this ludicrously underrated composer was ahead of almost everyone else in having a minimalist sensibility. The way he stretches and sustains the music can be truly awe-inspiring. And it is such a unique voice. This is complex music that is simple. It is extremely pretty while being not pretty. It is very difficult to listen to while being easy listening. Yes, so ok, I gush. But I think more should be made of him in Britain. He's someone who by rights should be contrasted and compared with Yves Klein and La Monte Young or, when not, seen as a predecessor of Reich, Riley, Adams and Glass. In parallel, I think he easily stands alongside the heavyweights Penderecki, Szymanowski and Lutoslawski for why should a composer be any less for reflecting any darkness with lightness and putting it into a fresh postcard form? Freshness is the key word here in my opinion.

In the 1990s, the late Jackie Leven, more of a rock musician than anything else, produced a number of records in which most of the songs, on the surface, were structurally fairly straightforward. However, the nature of the arrangements and especially their juxtapositions seemed highly distinctive and unexpected. There was novelty in the musical approach. It was as if it had all been recorded in an entirely different way, not so much integrated as separate while still providing coherence, with a new idea of organic sound in which colour was emphasised in a sleekness typified by compact disc technology. It wasn't wholly new. Van Morrison had been there earlier even on vinyl with a few tracks such as "Snow in San Anselmo". I hear Panufnik's ways in these. I also hear them in "De Stijl" by Louis Andriessen which, whatever one thinks of that work, is often trotted out by modern musical types as an aspiration. Across the genres, Panufnik has much to say about possible ways forward in music and is uniquely placed for a positive reassessment with application to future technology.

Symphony No 2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YZbj47HXfU