Autumn Music (1962, rev.1965) 17’
First Performance: 16 January 1968 Paris L’Orchestre Philharmonique de l’ORTF, Serge Fournier
“Written in memory of a friend who lay dying during an autumn, its three brief sections are predominantly elegiac in tone and its individual and beautifully realised sonorities tellingly invoke a desolate landscape. But these are more than mood pictures, for in this precise and poised score simple ideas are ingeniously extended and developed.”
The Observer
3.0.3.0—0.0.0.0—perc(2):tgl.picc/SD/TD/BD;glsp—cel—pft—harp—strings(0.0.6.6.4 or 0.0.3.3.2)
Concertino
See Works for soloist(s) and orchestra
Concerto Festivo (1979) 15’
FP: 17 June 1979 Royal Festival Hall, London
London Symphony Orchestra (no conductor)
3(III=picc).2.corA.2.bcl.2.dbn—4.3.3.1—timp.perc(2):4 unpitched membrane drums of different sizes/t.bells;glsp/xyl—
strings(14.12.10.8.6 min)
Harmony (1989) 17’
A Poem for Chamber Orchestra
FP: 15 December 1989 92nd St Y, New York City
New York Chamber Symphony, composer
“It is a very beautiful piece and one whose originality lies not in its outward manifestations but in the same kind of “mysterious spirituality” the composer attributes to Mozart.”
New York Times
2.2.2.2—0.0.0.0—strings(8.6.4.4.0)
Strings maximum 12.10.8.6.0, minimum 6.5.4.3.0
Heroic Overture (1952, rev.1969) 6’
FP: 27 July 1952 Olympic Games, Helsinki Finnish Radio Orchestra, composer
2.picc.2.2.bcl.2.dbn—4(6).3.3.1—perc(4):glsp;SD;TD;BD/tam-t/ cyms—strings
Katýn Epitaph (1967, rev.1969) 7’
FP: 17 November 1968 Carnegie Hall, New York
American Symphony Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski
3(III=picc).2(II=corA).2.2.dbn—0.0.0.1—timp—strings(min 4 db)
Lullaby [Ko|ysanka] (1947, rev.1955) 8’
for 29 stringed instruments and 2 harps
FP: 9 November 1947 Kraków Kraków Philharmonic, composer
2 harps (or 1 )—strings(6.6.6.6.5)
Metasinfonia (Symphony No.7)
See Works for soloist(s) and orchestra
Nocturne (1947, rev.1955) 15’
FP: 1948 Paris L’Orchestre Radio-Symphonique, composer
Nocturne won first prize in the Karol Szymanowski Competition in Poland. It marked Panufnik’s return to orchestral composition afier the events experienced in Warsaw during the Second World War – “In this piece, I completely detached myself from the tragic memories of the past years. I was escaping reality, weaving for myself a kind of night vision, as in a dream – seeing at the beginning cloudy and mysterious images, which gradually emerge clearer and clearer, building very slowly and irrevocably up into an orgiastic climax, then transforming little by little back into the misty images as at the beginning, softly dispersing until they fade out completely.”
3(III=picc).2.2.bcl.2.dbn—4.3.3.1—timp.perc(4):SD/TD;cyms/
tgl.picc;BD;tam-t—pft—strings
Polonia (1959) 20’
FP: 21 August 1959 Royal Albert Hall, London
BBC Symphony Orchestra, composer
2(II=picc).2.2.2—4.2.3.0—perc(2):BD/SD/TD—strings
A Procession for Peace (1982-83) 7’
FP: 16 July 1983 Kenwood Lakeside, London
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, composer
3(III= picc).2.corA.2.bcl.2.dbn—4(6).3.3.1—timp.perc(2 or 4):
SD/TD(3SD/3TD);BD—strings
Rhapsody (1956) 17’
FP: 11 January 1957 BBC broadcast, London
BBC Symphony Orchestra, composer
2.picc.2.corA.2.bcl.2.dbn—4.2.1.1—timp.perc(1): tgl.picc/SD/ BD—pft—strings
Sinfonia Concertante (Symphony No.4)
See Works for soloist(s) and orchestra
Sinfonia di Sfere (Symphony No.5) (1974-75) 33’
FP: 13 April 1976 Royal Festival Hall, London
London Symphony Orchestra, David Atherton
“Craftsmanship, a precise and sensitive ear for texture and line, a gentle irony or self-mockery: these are vital aspects of any worthwhile music, and they are quite uncommon. In ‘Symphony of Spheres’ they show up in the way Panufnik manipulates derisory thematic material into fine webs of counterpoint whose fascination comes precisely from the obvious identity of all the component lines. He is a master of canon, in its various guises. As in a Japanese drawing the extreme clarity of the line actually contributes to the subtlety and refinement of the effect.”
The Observer
2.picc.2.2.bcl.2.dbn—1.1.1.1—perc(3):12 untuned membrane drums of 4 different sizes—pft—strings
Sinfonia Elegiaca (Symphony No.2) (1957, rev.1966) 22’
FP: 21 November 1957 Houston, Texas
Houston Symphony Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski
Sinfonia Elegiaca was the first of several works to be championed by Leopold Stokowski. The symphony has its origins in an earlier Symphony of Peace from 1951, and although Panufnik subsequently decided to recompose the work as the inspiration remained the same — ”I felt inescapably compelled to express my deep sorrow for all the war victims of all nationalities, religions and races: a work which, at the same time, would be an anti-war protest against violence and the aggressive element in mankind.”
3(III=picc).2.corA.2.bcl.2.dbn—4.3.3.1—timp.perc(3):glsp;SD/
TD;BD/cyms/tam-t—harp—strings
Sinfonia Mistica (Symphony No.6) (1977) 22’
FP: 17 January 1978 Middlesbrough Northern Sinfonia, Christopher Seaman
2.2.2.2—2.0.0.0—strings(6.6.3.3.2 min, 12.12.9.6.4 max)
Sinfonia Rustica (Symphony No.1) (1948, rev.1955) 24’
FP: 1949 Kraków Kraków Philharmonic, composer
Sinfonia Rustica, Panufnik’s first symphony, was awarded First Prize in the 1949 Chopin Competition, Warsaw. The composer explains the work’s genesis: “I was always attracted to the rustic art of Poland, especially the intricate, colourful paper-cuts, worked through the long winter evenings by the imaginative and dexterous Polish peasants. These paper-cuts were usually semi-abstract, with symmetrical designs incorporating flowers, trees, animals, even sometimes people and country scenes. Using fragments of Polish folk themes as a basis for the material, I decided to compose a large-scale work in which I could transform these primitive, naive elements into music.”
1.2.0.2—2.1.0.0—strings(14.12.10.8.6)
Sinfonia Sacra (Symphony No.3) (1963) 22’
FP: 12 August 1964 Monte Carlo Monte Carlo Opera Orchestra, Louis Frémaux
Sinfonia Sacra was awarded the first Prince Rainier First Prize, Monaco, in 1963. It has since become Panufnik’s most performed work and has been championed in recent years by Sir Georg Solti, Semyon Bychkov, Tadaaki Otaka and others. The symphony was composed as a tribute to Poland’s Millenium of Christianity and Statehood and takes as its musical basis the first known hymn in the Polish language, the Bogurodzica.
3(III=picc).2.corA.2.bcl.2.dbn—4(6).4.3.1—timp.perc(3):SD/TD/BD/ tam-t/large cyms/small susp.cym/large and small tgl—strings
Sinfonia Votiva (Symphony No.8) (1981, rev.1984) 25’
FP: 28 January 1982 Boston Boston Symphony Orchestra,
Seiji Ozawa
Sinfonia Votiva was commissioned for the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s centennial. It is, in the composer’s words, “a votive offering to the miraculous icon of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa. It is to her that the Polish people offer their prayers in times of national crises.” Panufnik began the symphony in August 1980 at the time of the Gdańsk uprising and, although he does not ascribe to it any programmatic content, he admits to being “profoundly influenced over the events which were taking place.”
2.picc.2.corA.2.bcl.2.dbn—4.3.3.1—perc(5):glsp;vib;t.bells;3tgl/ 3susp.cym;3tam-t—2 harps (or 1 )—strings(14.12.10.8.6 min)
Symphony No.9 (Sinfonia della Speranza) (1986, rev.1987) 38’
FP: 25 February 1987 Royal Festival Hall, London
BBC Symphony Orchestra, composer
The symphony was commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society to celebrate its 175th anniversary. See page 4 for compositional diagram.
3.2.2.bcl.2.dbn—4.3.3.1—timp—strings
Symphony No.10 (1988, rev.1990) 17’
FP: 1 February 1990 Orchestra Hall, Chicago
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, composer
“…it is not necessary to know geometry to be deeply affected by this music, by the typically ingenious manner in which it flowers from tiny thematic cells, by the hard, bright scoring and richness of incident. And it is this organic unity of idea and structure that allows Panufnik’s gestures to resonate with such urgency and power.”
Chicago Tribune
3.2.3(III=bcl).2.dbn—6.3.3.1—perc(2):SD/TD/BD/cyms/gong/
tam-t—pft(with amplification if possible)—harp—strings
Tragic Overture (1942, reconstructed 1945, rev.1955) 7’
FP: 1943 Warsaw Members of the Warsaw Philharmonic, composer
3(III= picc).0.2.bcl.2.dbn—4.3.3.1—perc(3):tam-t/cyms/SD/BD— strings