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• Letters from 1950
Reproduced here for the first time is a letter dated 21 April 1950. It is from Andrzej Panufnik, who expresses his desire to write a Revolutionary Symphony. Not heard of this work before? That’s not...
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• Panufnik’s Escape (1)
In the annals of defections from the Polish People’s Republic in the 1950s, that of Andrzej Panufnik in July 1954 is one of the least likely. He was not a fighter pilot like Franciszek Jarecki or...
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• Panufnik’s Escape (2)
Scarlett Panufnik vanished from public attention once she and Andrzej Panufnik divorced in 1958. Andrzej Panufnik was her fourth husband – they fell for one another in 1950 during her honeymoon with...
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• Panufnik’s ‘Silesian Hammers’
Leafing through Trybuna Robotnicza (Workers’ Tribune) – as one does – I came across an entry yesterday that brought me up sharp. Trybuna Robotnicza was the daily newspaper in Silesia of Poland’s...
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• Polish Composer Doodles Revealed
Last week I posted two doodles cropped from working materials of the 1950s by two Polish composers. Here they are on their full pages. The first comes from the first score of Symfonia pokoju (Symphony...
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• Panufnik: One Song or Three?
Last month I spent a few days researching Panufnik manuscripts in Kraków’s Jagiellonian Library. I was interested mainly in his working versions of major pieces from the 1940s and 50s; I will write on...
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• Wartime Warsaw Recollections
Back in October 2014, I reported briefly on a new 4-CD boxed set of recordings of Polish music composed, for the most part, during World War II. Now a book of recollections has been published by the...
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• Panufnik Revised: 1. Tragic Overture
With last year’s Panufnik centenary and this year’s imminent publications – an expanded reissue of his autobiography (Toccata Press) and the English-language translation of Beata Bolesławska’s 2001...
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• Panufnik Revised: 2. Nocturne & Lullaby
For the second of five articles on Panufnik’s revisions made after he had fled to England in 1954, I have combined two works from 1947: Nocturne and Lullaby. They remain two of his most enduring...
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• Panufnik, Penderecki, Zubel
To add to forthcoming Polish music events in the UK, there are two celebrations this month, in Glasgow and Manchester. Next Saturday and Sunday (20-21 June), ‘Panufnik. A Celebration’ takes place at...
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