Andrzej Panufnik

Andrzej Panufnik was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1914, the son of a famous Polish violin maker and an English violinist. His first name is pronounced (roughly!) as “Ahn-jey” and his surname has its stress on the second syllable (so Pa-nuf-fnik). He was a child prodigy and began studying music properly at the Warsaw Conservatory in 1932, finishing his studies there in 1936, graduating with distinction. Travels to Austria and England soon followed, but he chose to return to Poland despite the worsening international climate in 1939. He spent the years of the Second World War in Warsaw, playing the pianos in cafes. He fled Warsaw shortly before the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, leaving all his compositions behind: his apartment was then taken over by a stranger who simply heaped them all on a bonfire. Panufnik subsequently re-created three of the most significant compositions: the Piano Trio, the Five Polish Peasant Songs and the Tragic Overture.

After the war, Panufnik was appointed conductor of the Krakov Philharmonic Orchestra and then the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. He also guest conducted the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. His compositions garnered numerous prizes at this time, too. At home, the Polish authorities followed the USSR's line on the need for artists to depict the glorious realities of Socialism and this, along with disputes about the proscription of some of his music, finally led him to escape Poland for England in 1954: a pre-arranged conducting job in Switzerland led to a night-time taxi escape through the streets of Zurich , followed by a flight to London, where he immediately applied for political asylum. He was, of course, branded a traitor in his home country and his music was insta-banned. A publishing contract with Boosey & Hawkes entailed him revising all the music which had previously been published in Poland (to avoid copyright issues): later, his Polish publishers disclaimed any interest in his music, rendering the revisions functionally unnecessary after all. Panufnik bemoaned the time wasted on them -but his music is still generally performed in the revised versions anyway.

He took British nationality in 1961, and was principal conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra between 1957-1959 -a period in which he was too busy to compose much. He eventually moved to Twickenham and there was able to concentrate on composing once more: Rostropovich commissioned a cello concerto from him, for example; Yehudi Menuhin similarly commissioned a violin concerto. He was knighted in 1991, shortly before his death, aged 77. He had briefly revisited Poland, once democracy had been restored, in 1990.

His musical output is quite extensive, including 12 symphonies (two of which were either lost or withdrawn); concertos for horn, bassoon, violin and cello; two ballet scores; and numerous choral works. About his post-war music, the New Groves is surprisingly sniffy: The compositions written after 1948 reveal a creative narrowing. Above all, there is a lack of formal consequentiality, for which Panufnik attempted to compensate by means of trivial (if monumental in intent) emotion. Technically, the works are often based on conventions he had developed, but these are somehow blunted. It gets worse: The first years in England were not auspicious for Panufnik's evolution as a composer of individuality and independence. His own new pieces were few and lesser in achievement [than those of admiring younger composers inspired by his works of the 1940s]. However, it also says that by the 1960s, he had recovered some of his earlier brilliance and that whilst his music consists of a “considerable degree of harmonic stasis, his ingenuity is never in question, nor is it in his handling of symmetries and palindromes in the formal sphere.

Basically, I think the New Groves is saying that he used inflated language for the titles of his pieces (such as 'Sinfonia Mistica' or 'Heroic Overture') to promise emotion that his music doesn't actually realise; whilst nevertheless being able to demonstrate ingenuity and skill in the handling of form. I'd probably concur that his music strikes me mainly as intellectual, rather than heart-warming or deeply moving. At times, he reminds me of a slightly less lyrical and rather more spiky Respighi. That's not a bad thing!