Two Andrzej Panufnik works, Tragic Overture and Lullaby, will be performed in the BBC Prom on 23rd August. This concert, the Prom debut of Poland’s Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, will be conducted by Antoni Wit as a climax to his many years as Music Director of this famous Polish Orchestra. He will also conduct music by Lutosławski and Shostakovich.

Tragic Overture, a dramatic musical rendering of war and fear, is dedicated to the composer’s brave Underground fighter brother Mirek who died in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. The  beautiful, mysterious Lullaby, a short, extremely original work composed in 1945, demonstrates Panufnik’s true place as the father of the Polish avant garde movement. This work caused a stir at its premiere during the 1948 International Festival of Contemporary Music at Scheveningen in Holland: a letter in the Leonard Bernstein archives shows how impressed he was by Panufnik’s work.

BBC PROMENADE CONCERTS, Royal Albert Hall, London 23rd August 2013 at 7:30pm.  Buy tickets here.

2014 marks the centenary of Andrzej Panufnik and many exciting events will taking place throughout the year.  Leading orchestras, conductors, chamber groups and soloists and radio stations in several countries and continents are planning Panufnik performances, education events and lectures which will be announced in due course

The London Symphony Orchestra will start off the British celebrations of Panufnik’s Centenary on 5th February 2014, with two works including his much-loved 3rd symphony, Sinfonia Sacra.  The LSO will also perform his music in London and in Poland in October 2014.

On 27th February 2014 Vadim Repin will perform Panufnik’s Violin Concerto with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

The Polish celebrations of his Centenary start a few days earlier with the Juventis Orchestra on 1st February 2014 in Warsaw with his Piano Concerto.

There are many more great Panufnik Centenary events yet to be announced,  and a detailed programme will be published on this site.  Please let Boosey & Hawkes know if you are planning a performance and would like to be included in the official list.

cpo‘s epic new series of Andrzej Panufnik’s Symphonic Works continues to be met with great critical acclaim. The fifth volume in the series, out now, sees the young Polish conductor Łukasz Borowicz return to the podium, this time leading the larger forces of the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra in fine interpretations of Panufnik’s popular Symphonies 7 and 8, as well as the powerful Concerto Festivo.

The CD includes Metasinfonia for Organ, Timpani and Strings (Symphony No. 7) and Sinfonia Votiva (No. 8), which is dedicated to the Black Madonna of Częstochowa, the symbol of independence for Polish people. It is one of Panufnik’s most-performed works and was commissioned for the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s centennial in 1982. Concerto Festivo was commissioned in 1979 by the London Symphony Orchestra to celebrate their 75th anniversary.

“This is an admirable series full of refreshing subtlety: old friends and new discoveries.” Rob Barnett/Musicweb International

“(The series) reveals the careful craftsmanship and sharp-honed form that characterised Panufnik’s work in the sequence of 10 symphonies that are promised from CPO, and the performances under Łukasz Borowicz suggest that the series will be well worth following.”  Andrew Clements, The Guardian

Available as CD or download.  Listen or buy in the Current Releases page.

A fascinating insight into how Panufnik and fellow composer Witołd Lutosławski helped to lift spirits in the misery of Nazi-controlled, half-starved Warsaw in World War II, broadcast twice on BBC Radio 4 has won the highly prestigious Europa Best Radio Music Programme of the Year 2012.

Concerts or any large gatherings of Polish people were banned during the war years, but the two young composers were able to play in “artistic cafés”, much appreciated by music-hungry Warsaw inhabitants. They also risked their lives performing in illegal underground concerts for a mixed audience of music lovers and resistance fighters, all of whom faced likely imprisonment or death even for attending. This enthralling programme touched on the post war period also when Nazi domination was succeeded by Communist bullying.

You can listen to the programme, by Falling Tree Productions, here.  It will be broadcast again, this time on BBC Radio 3, on December 22nd 2012.

A dramatic new ballet with the Polish National Ballet choreographed by Emil Wesołowski and conducted by Jakub Chrenowicz has been premièred with four performances in Warsaw in April 2012.

Cain and Abel uses Panufnik’s Rhapsody, the third vision of Sinfonia Sacra and Tragic Overture in a version adapted by Panufnik himself for Sir Kenneth MacMillan in 1969. It is the latest of several ballets choreographed to Panufnik’s music following in the footsteps of great choreographers including MacMillan, Martha Graham, Krzysztof Pastor, David Bintley, Gerald Arpino.  For news of further performances contact  Teatr Wielki, Warsaw.

You can see a short excerpt of the ballet here.

My Father, The Iron Curtain and Me (Polish title Tata zza żelaznej kurtyny), a joint commission by the European Broadcasting Union, BBC and Poland’s TVP, is a deeply moving film following Panufnik’s artist and record producer son, Jem, as he traces his father’s footsteps and attempts to discover how he coped with the severe conditions and restrictions imposed on him through the long years of Nazi occupation and then in Soviet-controlled Warsaw.

Directed by Krzyzstof Rzączyński, the programme won first prize at last year’s prestigious NURT Documentary Festival, as well as being shortlisted for the History Makers Award 2011 in New York.

You can see a recently broadcast interview with the director (in Polish) with clips of the film here.

Composer and numismatist Paweł Łukaszewski has produced a series of coins celebrating Polish-born composers of religious music, and is commemorating Andrzej Panufnik, whose ecclesiastical works include his Song to the Virgin Mary to an ancient Latin text of Polish origin, and  one of his most famous works, Sinfonia Sacra, which celebrates 1,000 years of Catholicism in Poland.  For more information please go to Mennica Kresowa.

The LSO-Panufnik Young Composers Project  is a highly successful scheme developed from  Panufnik’s stated belief that composers need a form of apprenticeship in order to be able to compose with maximum quality for the greatest musicians and finest symphony orchestras of the world.  Developed by the London Symphony Orchestra together with Panufnik’s widow, Camilla Jessel Panufnik, this prestigious opportunity is offered  annually to talented young composers from classical, jazz and other musical backgrounds, started in 2005, and is now supporting 6 new selected composers resident in Britain in developing their skills and getting to understand the workings of one of the world’s great orchestras.

With the support of the  Helen Hamlyn Trust, 45 talented composers have benefited from the scheme, with commissions from many orchestras as well as invaluable know-how.  The LSO considers this one of its “flagship” education projects.  Competition to be one of the annual six is now very strong, with 110 applicants this year.

You can watch a film about the scheme here.