The Music of Andrzej Panufnik

Abstract

Born into a musical family in 1914, Andrzej Panufnik began composing at the age of nine, made rapid and distinguished progress through the Warsaw Conservatoire, and then went abroad for further study in Paris, London and Vienna (including conducting lessons from Felix Weingartner). At the outbreak of war in 1939 he returned to Warsaw and devoted himself to composition, as far as this was possible in an atmosphere poisonous to artistic creation; he also composed patriotic songs under a pseudonym, and participated as a pianist in prohibited underground and charity concerts. In the Warsaw uprising in 1944 all that he had written up to then was destroyed, but the collapse of Germany and the removal of the Nazi occupation brought the seeming promise of a fresh start under a new regime. Panufnik was appointed permanent conductor of the Cracow Philharmonic Orchestra, and then of the Warsaw Philharmonic. From that time on he travelled extensively, conducting every leading European orchestra. Further honours and decorations came his way from the new Poland, where he was esteemed as one of the country's leading composers and conductors. In spite of this he felt unable to accept political intervention in artistic matters, and in 1954, as a protest, he left Poland to emigrate to England. Here too he has been active both as a composer and as a conductor, and for two years (1957–59) he was permanent conductor of the City of Birmingham Orchestra, but now gives most of his time to composition.