Sir Andrzej Panufnik was a Polish

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

, pianist

Pianist

A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...

, conductor

Conducting

Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...

 and pedagogue. He became established as one of the leading Polish composers, and as a conductor he was instrumental in the re-establishment of the Warsaw Philharmonic orchestra after World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. After his increasing frustration with the extra-musical demands made on him by the country's regime, he defected

Defection

In politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state or political entity in exchange for allegiance to another. More broadly, it involves abandoning a person, cause or doctrine to whom or to which one is bound by some tie, as of allegiance or duty.This term is also applied,...

 to the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 in 1954. He briefly became chief conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra is a British orchestra based in Birmingham, England. The Orchestra's current chief executive, appointed in 1999, is Stephen Maddock...

, a post he relinquished after two years to devote all his time to composition.

Childhood, and studies

Panufnik was born in Warsaw

Warsaw

Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

, the second son of a violinist mother and an amateur (but renowned) violin-maker father. From an early age he was torn between an interest in music and a fascination with the mechanics of aeroplanes. His grandmother arranged piano lessons for him, but although he showed talent his studies were erratic. As a schoolboy he composed some successful popular tunes, but his father did not approve his son's pursuing a musical career. Eventually his father relented, permitting the boy to study music provided he matriculated. Panufnik failed the piano entrance examination for the Warsaw Conservatory, but succeeded in gaining admission as a percussion student. He soon left the percussion class to concentrate on studying composition and conducting; he worked hard and completed the course in much less time than expected.

After graduating with distinction in 1936, his plans to travel to Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 to study conducting for a year under Felix Weingartner

Felix Weingartner

Paul Felix von Weingartner, Edler von Münzberg was an Austrian conductor, composer and pianist.-Biography:...

 were delayed by his being called up for National Service. Panufnik recalled how, on the night before his medical, he heard the Polish chant Bogurodzica

Bogurodzica

Bogurodzica is the oldest Polish religious hymn. It was composed somewhere between the 10th and 13th centuries. The origin of the song is not clear....

on the wireless. This entirely captivated him, and he sat up late into the night drinking copious quantities of black coffee. The result of this was that he failed his medical examination and was excused from military duties. Instead he used the year's hiatus earning money and reputation composing film music.

Panufnik travelled to Vienna in 1937 for his studies with Weingartner. He also fulfilled his intention of studying music by the composers of the Second Viennese School

Second Viennese School

The Second Viennese School is the group of composers that comprised Arnold Schoenberg and his pupils and close associates in early 20th century Vienna, where he lived and taught, sporadically, between 1903 and 1925...

, but while he applauded Arnold Schoenberg

Arnold Schoenberg

Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...

's imposition of constraints in order to give artistic unity to a composition, dodecaphonic music

Twelve-tone technique

Twelve-tone technique is a method of musical composition devised by Arnold Schoenberg...

 did not appeal to him. Panufnik returned to Poland before the end of his planned year-long stay, leaving shortly after the Anschluss

Anschluss

The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....

 when the political situation caused Weingartner to be removed from the Academy.

Panufnik also lived for some months in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 and London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, where he studied privately and composed his first symphony. He met Weingartner again in London, and the older conductor urged him to stay in England to avoid the consequences of the worsening international situation. Panufnik was determined to return to Poland.

Panufnik's war

During the German occupation of Warsaw during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 Panufnik formed a piano duo with his friend and fellow composer Witold Lutosławski, and they performed in cafés around Warsaw. This was the only way in which Poles could legitimately hear live music, as arranging concerts was impossible because the occupying forces had banned organised gatherings. Panufnik also composed some illegal Songs of Underground Resistance, which became popular among the Polish community. During this period he composed a Tragic Overture and a second symphony. Later, Panufnik was able to conduct charity concerts, at one of which his Tragic Overture was first performed. He fled from Warsaw with his ailing mother, leaving all his music behind in his apartment, just before the Warsaw Uprising

Warsaw Uprising

The Warsaw Uprising was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance Home Army , to liberate Warsaw from Nazi Germany. The rebellion was timed to coincide with the Soviet Union's Red Army approaching the eastern suburbs of the city and the retreat of German forces...

 in 1944. When Panufnik returned to the ruins of the city in the spring of 1945 to bury his brother's body and recover his own manuscripts, he discovered that despite having survived the widespread destruction, all of his scores had been discarded onto a bonfire by the new tenant of his rooms.

Socialist Realism

After World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 Panufnik moved to Kraków

Kraków

Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...

, where he found work composing film music for the Army Film Unit. Most of this was for propaganda films; Panufnik later recounted how for one film, The Electrification of the Villages, the director was unable to find a house without a supply of electricity, and had to demolish pylons and remove infrastructure in order to film it being built. Panufnik accepted the post of Principal Conductor with the Kraków

Kraków

Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...

 Philharmonic Orchestra. He reconstructed some of his music that had been lost, starting with the Tragic Overture which was still fresh in his mind. Encouraged by this he also reconstructed his Piano Trio and Polish Peasant Songs. However, his first symphony did not prove so easy and, disappointed with the result, Panufnik decided that he would thereafter concentrate on composing new works.

Appointed Music Director of the defunct Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, traditionally Poland's leading orchestra, Panufnik set about engaging musicians and finding premises. When bureaucratic obstacles made the reconstitution of the orchestra difficult (for example, the lack of available living accommodation for the musicians) he resigned in protest. At this time he also fulfilled conducting engagements abroad, including guest conductor with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

The Berlin Philharmonic, German: , formerly Berliner Philharmonisches Orchester , is an orchestra based in Berlin, Germany. In 2006, a group of ten European media outlets voted the Berlin Philharmonic number three on a list of "top ten European Orchestras", after the Vienna Philharmonic and the...

. He was instructed to include his Tragic Overture as a reminder to Germany of their recent actions in Warsaw

Warsaw

Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

.

Around this time he started composing again, writing his Circle of Fifths for piano (published as Twelve Miniature Studies). His Lullaby for string orchestra and two harps was inspired by the combination of the River Thames

River Thames

The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...

 and the night sky while he was visiting London. In its use of quarter tone

Quarter tone

A quarter tone , is a pitch halfway between the usual notes of a chromatic scale, an interval about half as wide as a semitone, which is half a whole tone....

s and dense textures this broke new ground, both for Panufnik and for Polish music. Panufnik also composed a Sinfonia Rustica, deciding to give it a name rather than the designation "Symphony No. 1" out of feeling for his two lost works in the genre.

Panufnik became Vice-President of the newly constituted Union of Polish Composers (ZKP—Związek Kompozytorów Polskich), accepting the post after being urged to do so by his colleagues. However, in this capacity he found himself manoeuvred into positions which he did not support, at conferences whose nature was political rather than musical. At one of these conferences he met Zoltán Kodály

Zoltán Kodály

Zoltán Kodály was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is best known internationally as the creator of the Kodály Method.-Life:Born in Kecskemét, Kodály learned to play the violin as a child....

 who privately expressed a similar feeling of artistic helplessness to Panufnik's. He also encountered composers such as the English Alan Bush

Alan Bush

Alan Dudley Bush was a British composer and pianist. He was a committed socialist, and politics sometimes provided central themes in his music.-Personal life:...

, who were sympathetic to the aims of Stalinist Socialism, and other composers on the political far-left such as Benjamin Frankel

Benjamin Frankel

Benjamin Frankel was a British composer. Frankel's most famous pieces include a cycle of five string quartets and eight symphonies as well as a number of concertos for violin and viola; his single best-known piece is probably the First Sonata for Solo Violin, which, like his concertos, resulted...

.
Adding to Panufnik's discomfiture, in the postwar period the government became increasingly interventionist in the arts. As a consequence of events in the Soviet Union, particularly the Zhdanov decree

Zhdanov Doctrine

The Zhdanov Doctrine was a Soviet cultural doctrine developed by the Central Committee secretary Andrei Zhdanov in 1946. It proposed that the world was divided into two camps: the imperialistic, headed by the United States; and democratic, headed by the Soviet Union...

 in 1948, it was dictated that composers should follow Soviet Realism, and that musical compositions, like all works of art, should reflect "the realities of Socialist Life". Panufnik later mused on the nebulous nature of Soviet Realism, quoting a Polish joke of the time that it was "like a mosquito: everyone knew it had a prick, but no-one had seen it". In this climate Panufnik, who was not a member of the Communist Party, attempted to tread an acceptable path by composing works based on historical Polish music; to this end he wrote his Old Polish Suite.

His Nocturne was singled out for criticism, and later General Włodzimierz Sokorski

Włodzimierz Sokorski

Włodzimierz Sokorski was a Polish communist official, writer, military journalist and eventually a Brigadier General in the Soviet-dominated People's Republic of Poland...

, Secretary of Culture, announced that Panufnik's Sinfonia Rustica had "ceased to exist". Panufnik later described the symphony as "a patently innocent work", and he found it particularly galling that one of the panel that decided on the work's proscription had earlier been on the panel that had awarded it first prize in the Chopin Competition. The work was nevertheless published by the State Publishing House and, as Adrian Thomas has shown, performances of the work continued sporadically in Poland. While his compositions were branded at home as formalist, Panufnik was promoted abroad as a cultural export, both as composer and conductor. The authorities awarded him their highest accolade, Standard of Labour First Class.

In 1950, Panufnik visited Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 as part of a Polish delegation to study Soviet teaching methods. He met Dmitri Shostakovich

Dmitri Shostakovich

Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....

, whom he had befriended at previous conferences, and Aram Khatchaturian. During conversations with lesser composers, Panufnik was pressed to say what he was working on. Feeling the need to say something acceptable, he casually mentioned that he had an idea for a Symphony of Peace. This was seized upon, and on returning to Poland he was granted a stay in quiet surroundings so that he could finish the piece (Panufnik interpreted this as an order to complete it). He wrote a three movement work, ending with a setting of words by his friend, the poet Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz. Panufnik hoped to work his own conception of peace into the composition, rather than the official Soviet ideology. The piece was not a success.

While he was writing the Symphony of Peace, he was struck by the beauty of an Irish woman he met, Marie Elizabeth O'Mahoney, who was known as "Scarlett" because of her likeness (both physical and temperamental) to Scarlett O'Hara

Scarlett O'Hara

Scarlett O' Hara is the protagonist in Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel Gone with the Wind and in the later film of the same name...

 from Margaret Mitchell

Margaret Mitchell

Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell was an American author and journalist. Mitchell won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1937 for her epic American Civil War era novel, Gone with the Wind, which was the only novel by Mitchell published during her lifetime.-Family:Margaret Mitchell was born in Atlanta,...

's novel Gone with the Wind

Gone with the Wind

The slaves depicted in Gone with the Wind are primarily loyal house servants, such as Mammy, Pork and Uncle Peter, and these slaves stay on with their masters even after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 sets them free...

. Even though she was honeymoon

Honeymoon

-History:One early reference to a honeymoon is in Deuteronomy 24:5 “When a man is newly wed, he need not go out on a military expedition, nor shall any public duty be imposed on him...

ing with her third husband, she and Panufnik started an affair. Panufnik soon discovered she was epileptic, but in spite of his doubts the couple were married in 1951 and soon had a baby daughter, Oonagh. Panufnik now had a young family to support, and so threw himself into his lucrative work for the Film Unit. For one film he again turned to old Polish music, and he eventually adapted this score for the concert work Concerto in modo antico. In 1952 Panufnik composed a Heroic Overture, based on an idea he had conceived in 1939 inspired by the struggle of Poland against Nazi oppression. He submitted this work (without divulging its true meaning) for the 1952 pre-Olympic music competition in Helsinki

Helsinki

Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...

, and it won. However, at home this overture was also branded "formalist".

In the spring of 1953, Panufnik led the Chamber Orchestra of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra on a tour of China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, where he met prime-minister Zhou Enlai

Zhou Enlai

Zhou Enlai was the first Premier of the People's Republic of China, serving from October 1949 until his death in January 1976...

 and, briefly, Chairman Mao

Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...

. While he was on this tour, he heard that Oonagh had been drowned while Scarlett had an epileptic attack while she was bathing her. After returning to Warsaw he was asked to write a letter that the government could send to western musicians, ostensibly from Panufnik, to sound them out as to their sympathies with the Polish "Peace Movement". Panufnik described this as effectively an order to spy for Moscow, and as the last in a "succession of final straws". Thus in 1954 Panufnik no longer felt able to reconcile his patriotic desire to remain a Polish composer in Poland with his contempt for the musical and political demands of the government. He decided to migrate to Britain

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 in order to highlight the conditions in which Polish composers were being forced to work.

Bernard Jacobson described the events of Panufnik's escape from Poland as being straight out of a John le Carré

John le Carré

David John Moore Cornwell , who writes under the name John le Carré, is an author of espionage novels. During the 1950s and the 1960s, Cornwell worked for MI5 and MI6, and began writing novels under the pseudonym "John le Carré"...

 novel. "Scarlett", whose father lived in Britain, easily obtained permission to travel to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, and while she was there she covertly asked Polish émigré friends to help. They contrived a conducting engagement in Switzerland as cover. Panufnik was anxious not to arouse suspicion by appearing too eager to accept the invitation when it arrived. While Panufnik was fulfilling the engagement, the Polish Legation in Switzerland became aware of his impending escape, and urgently recalled him to the Polish Embassy. Panufnik gave members of the Secret Police who were following him the slip during an alarming night-time taxi-ride through Zürich

Zürich

Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

. He eventually boarded a flight for London, and was granted political asylum on arrival. His defection made international headlines. The Polish

People's Republic of Poland

The People's Republic of Poland was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1990. Although the Soviet Union took control of the country immediately after the liberation from Nazi Germany in 1944, the name of the state was not changed until eight years later...

 government branded him a traitor, immediately suppressing his music and any record of his conducting achievements. Although a few subsequent Polish performances nevertheless did occur (as shown by the Panufnik scholar Adrian Thomas

Adrian Thomas

Adrian Thomas is Professor of Music at Cardiff University School of Music. He specializes in Polish Music.-Academic career:Thomas began his professional career at Queen's University Belfast in 1973. Between 1983 and 1984, he was a Visiting Fellow at University of California, San Diego, and after...

), with his defection Panufnik became a nonperson

Nonperson

A nonperson is a citizen or a member of a group who lacks, loses, or is forcibly denied social or legal status, especially basic human rights, or who effectively ceases to have a record of their existence within a society , from a point of view of traceability, documentation, or existence...

, and remained so until 1977.

Life in the west

Having left Poland without any money or possessions, income from occasional conducting engagements made it hard for Panufnik to make ends meet. He received financial support from fellow composers including Ralph Vaughan Williams

Ralph Vaughan Williams

Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...

 and Arthur Benjamin

Arthur Benjamin

Arthur Leslie Benjamin was an Australian composer, pianist, conductor and teacher. He is best known as the composer of Jamaican Rhumba, composed in 1938.-Biography:...

; Panufnik was as heartened by the gesture of professional solidarity as much as by the money. His old friend the pianist Witold Małcużyński also helped by finding for Panufnik a wealthy patron. "Scarlett" Panufnik published a book about Panufnik's life in Poland and his escape, but its surmises and inaccuracies distressed Panufnik; Panufnik and Scarlett drifted apart, as she craved excitement and society while he wanted peace and quiet for composing.

Panufnik visited the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 to attend a performance of his Symphony of Peace conducted by Leopold Stokowski

Leopold Stokowski

Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...

. The performance made Panufnik decide to scrap the Symphony of Peace, which he felt he had written under duress. When he returned to England he discarded the choral movement and recast the rest of the piece as his Sinfonia elegiaca. This also was performed under Stokowski with considerable success.

Panufnik had found it frustratingly difficult to get permission to travel to the States. In the wake of McCarthyism

McCarthyism

McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by...

, the staff at the American Embassy in London

Embassy of the United States in London

The Embassy of the United States of America to the Court of St. James's has been located since 1960 in the American Embassy London Chancery Building, in Grosvenor Square, Westminster, London...

 were unhelpful, and treated him with suspicion: Panufnik was surprised to have to supply fingerprints, and he was pointedly asked more than once whether he had ever been a member of the Polish United Workers Party. The irony of this difficulty, after his recent public defection to the west, was not lost on Panufnik.

Shortly after settling in Britain Panufnik was given an exclusive publishing contract with the prestigious firm of Boosey and Hawkes. They could get no answer from the Polish State publishers as to their long term intentions for Panufnik's existing works, all of which had appeared under their imprint. Panufnik was therefore advised to introduce small revisions into all his existing works in order to avoid copyright problems when Boosey and Hawkes took these works into their catalogue. Just after he completed this task, he heard that the Polish State Publishers had finally confirmed that they had no further interest in their catalogue of Panufnik's music. Panufnik bemoaned the time wasted, and indeed the surviving original scores (copies of which had already been sent to some libraries in the West, including Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

) show that Panufnik's revisions excised some of the more radical passages in these works. Nevertheless, all his music before 1955 continues to be performed in the revised editions. For two years from 1957 to 1959 Panufnik's financial situation eased slightly when he was appointed Principal Conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra is a British orchestra based in Birmingham, England. The Orchestra's current chief executive, appointed in 1999, is Stephen Maddock...

. The orchestra was keen to keep him, but preparing for fifty concerts a year prevented Panufnik from devoting enough time to composing.

In 1959 Panufnik fell in love with Winsome Ward, who was diagnosed with cancer in 1960. During this time, Panufnik had fulfilled a commission for his Piano Concerto, and another for his Sinfonia Sacra. He met Camilla Jessel, then aged twenty, who had worked as a personal assistant in the United States. The British MP Neil Marten

Neil Marten

Harry Neil Marten was a British Conservative Party politician.Born in Lambeth, Marten was educated at Rossall School. During World War II he was parachuted into France to work with French resistance and later served with Norwegian resistance...

 (who had been the person at the British Foreign Office responsible for looking after Panufnik's defection) suggested that Jessel could help him with his correspondence. Panufnik accepted, and she rapidly discovered that he had not replied to letters offering conducting engagements and enquiring about commissions. This released time for Panufnik, allowing him to devote more time to composition. In 1963, Panufnik entered his newly completed Sinfonia Sacra for a prestigious international competition in Monaco

Monaco

Monaco , officially the Principality of Monaco , is a sovereign city state on the French Riviera. It is bordered on three sides by its neighbour, France, and its centre is about from Italy. Its area is with a population of 35,986 as of 2011 and is the most densely populated country in the...

 for best orchestral work: it won first prize.

After Winsome Ward died in 1963, Panufnik and Jessel were drawn increasingly together, and they were married in November 1963. They moved into a house near the Thames in Twickenham

Twickenham

Twickenham is a large suburban town southwest of central London. It is the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and one of the locally important district centres identified in the London Plan...

, Greater London. His works were in demand by such major figures as Leopold Stokowski

Leopold Stokowski

Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...

 who conducted the first performance of Universal Prayer, Yehudi Menuhin

Yehudi Menuhin

Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin, OM, KBE was a Russian Jewish American violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in the United Kingdom. He was born to Russian Jewish parents in the United States, but became a citizen of Switzerland in 1970, and of the United Kingdom in 1985...

 who commissioned a violin concerto, and Mstislav Rostropovich

Mstislav Rostropovich

Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich, KBE , known to close friends as Slava, was a Soviet and Russian cellist and conductor. He was married to the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya. He is widely considered to have been the greatest cellist of the second half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest of...

 who commissioned a cello concerto. He also received commissions from orchestras as far afield as London, Boston and Monte Carlo. Panufnik did not return to Poland until 1990. He was knighted

Knight Bachelor

The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...

 by Queen Elizabeth II

Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...

 in 1991. He died in Twickenham

Twickenham

Twickenham is a large suburban town southwest of central London. It is the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and one of the locally important district centres identified in the London Plan...

, aged 77. His daughter Roxanna Panufnik

Roxanna Panufnik

Roxanna Panufnik is a British composer of Polish heritage. She is the daughter of the composer and conductor Sir Andrzej Panufnik....

 by his second wife Camilla is also a composer.

Works

The manuscripts and parts of a number of early compositions were lost as a consequence of the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. Panufnik reconstructed some of these in 1945.

Orchestral

• Symphonies
  • Symphony No. 1 (1939, lost 1944, reconstructed 1945, subsequently withdrawn and destroyed by the composer)
  • Symphony No. 2 (1941, lost 1944)
  • Sinfonia Rustica (Symphony No. 1) (1948, revised 1955)
  • Sinfonia Elegiaca (Symphony No. 2) (1957, revised 1966, incorporates material from the discarded Symphony of Peace)
  • Sinfonia Sacra (Symphony No. 3) (1963)
  • Sinfonia Concertante (Symphony No. 4), for flute, harp and small string orchestra (1973)
  • Sinfonia di Sfere (Symphony No. 5) (1974-75)
  • Sinfonia Mistica (Symphony No. 6) (1977)
  • Metasinfonia (Symphony No. 7), for solo organ, timpani and string orchestra (1978)
  • Sinfonia Votiva (Symphony No. 8) (1981, revised 1984)
  • Symphony No. 9, Sinfonia di Speranza (1986, revised 1990)
  • Symphony No. 10 (1988, revised 1990)

• Symphonic Variations (1935-36, lost 1944)
• Symphonic Allegro (1936, lost 1944)
• Symphonic Image (1936, lost 1944)
• Little Overture (c. 1937, lost 1944)
• Tragic Overture (1942, lost 1944, reconstructed 1945, revised 1955)
• Divertimento for Strings (adapted from music by Felix Janiewicz, 1947, revised 1955)
• Lullaby (1947, revised 1955)
• Nocturne (1947, revised 1955)
• Old Polish Suite, based on sixteenth and seventeenth century Polish works (1950, revised 1955)
• Heroic Overture (1952, revised 1969)
• Rhapsody (1956)
• Polonia (1959)
• Autumn Music, for three flutes, three clarinets, percussion, celesta, piano, harp, violas, cellos, and double basses (1962, revised 1965)
• Landscape, for string orchestra (1962, revised 1965)
• Jagiellonian Triptych, for string orchestra (based on early Polish works, 1966)
• Katyń Epitaph (1967. revised 1969)
• Concerto Festivo, for orchestra [without conductor] (1979)
• Concertino, for timpani, percussion and string orchestra (1979-80)
• Paean, for brass ensemble (1980)
• Arbor Cosmica, for twelve string soloists or string orchestra (1983)
• Harmony, for chamber orchestra (1989)

Concertante

• Concerto in modo antico, for solo trumpet, two harps, harpsichord and string orchestra [originally titled Koncert Gotycki, "Gothic Concerto"] (based on early Polish works, 1951, revised 1955)
• Piano Concerto (1962, revised 1970, re-composed 1972, first movement Intrada added 1982)
• Hommage à Chopin, for flute and small string orchestra (1966 arrangement of 1949 vocal work)
• Violin Concerto (1971)
• Bassoon Concerto (1985)
• Cello Concerto (1991)

Vocal

• Psalm, for soloist, chorus and orchestra (1936, Panufnik's diploma piece, lost 1944)
• Five Polish Peasant Songs, for sopranos or trebles, two flutes, two clarinets and bass clarinet (1940, lost 1944, reconstructed 1945, anonymous Polish text)
• Four Underground Resistance Songs, for voice or unison voices and piano (1943-44, Polish text by Stanisław Ryszard Dobrowolski)
• Hommage à Chopin, vocalises for soprano and piano, originally titled Suita Polska (1949, revised 1955)
• Symphony of Peace, for chorus and orchestra (1951, subsequently withdrawn and not included in the composer's symphonic canon, setting of Polish text by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz)
• Song to the Virgin Mary, for unaccompanied chorus or six solo voices (1964, revised 1969, anonymous Latin text)
• Universal Prayer, for soprano, alto, tenor and bass soloists, chorus, three harps and organ (1968-69, setting of English text by Alexander Pope
  Alexander Pope
  Alexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson...
  
  )
• Invocation for Peace, for trebles, two trumpets and two trombones (1972)
• Winter Solstice, for soprano and baritone soloists, chorus, three trumpets, three trombones, timpani and glockenspiel (1972, English text by Camilla Jessel)
• Love Song, for mezzo soprano and harp or piano (1976, optional string orchestra part added in 1991, setting of English text by Sir Philip Sidney
  Philip Sidney
  Sir Philip Sidney was an English poet, courtier and soldier, and is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan Age...
  
  )
• Dreamscapes, for mezzo soprano and piano (1977, wordless)
• Prayer to the Virgin of Skempe, for solo voice or unison chorus, organ and instrumental ensemble (1990, setting of Polish text by Jerzy Peterkiewicz)

Ballets

While Panufnik's music has been used often for dance, two ballet scores were prepared by the composer using adaptations of existing works with new material.

• Cain and Abel (1968, a reworking of Sinfonia Sacra and Tragic Overture with new material)
• Miss Julie (1970, a reworking of Nocturne, Rhapsody, Autumn Music and Polonia with new material)

Chamber

• Classical Suite, for string quartet (1933, lost 1944)
• Piano Trio (1934, lost 1944, reconstructed 1945, revised 1977)
• Quintetto Accademico, for flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon (1953, revised 1956, lost, was rediscovered in 1994)
• Triangles, for three flutes and three cellos (1972)
• String Quartet No. 1 (1976)
• String Quartet No. 2 Messages (1980)
• Song to the Virgin Mary, for string sextet (1987 arrangement of 1964 vocal work)
• String Sextet Train of Thoughts (1987)
• String Quartet No. 3 Wycinanki ("Paper Cuts") (1990)

Instrumental

• Variations, for piano (1933, lost 1944)
• Twelve Miniature Studies, for piano, originally titled Circle of Fifths (1947, Book I revised 1955, Book II revised 1964)
• Reflections, for piano (1968)
• Pentasonata, for piano (1984)

Pieces for Young Players

• Two Lyric Pieces [1: woodwind and brass, 2: strings] (1963)
• Thames Pageant, cantata for young players and singers (1969, English text by Camilla Jessel)
• A Procession for Peace (1982-3)

External links

• Andrzej Panufnik official website
• Panufnik at the Polish Music Center
• Panufnik page at Boosey and Hawkes, Panufnik's publisher