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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 November 2009
Like many other composers, Andrzej Panufnik lost his entire musical oeuvre as a result of the Warsaw Uprising. By then he was already the composer of two symphonies, a piano trio, the Five Polish Peasant Songs and Tragic Overture. This last piece, which he had conducted himself in occupied Warsaw in 1944, had brought him considerable success. Listeners felt its terrifying resonance inaddition to appreciating its masterful construction, and the event remained in many people's memory for years, establishing Panufnik's musical position as a composer as well as a conductor. (Before the war, he had graduated from the Warsaw Conservatory with degrees in both fields, and later studiedconducting at Vienna's Hochschule fur Musik with one of the greatest conductors of the time, FelixWeingartner.) His pre-war compositions, premiered in the late 1930s, had already been very well received by the critics. There was no doubt that Panufnik would play a significant role in post-war Polish musical life.
1 Chodkowski, A., ‘ Na poczatku byl Krakow’, in: 50 hi ZKP, Warsaw 1995, p.44 Google Scholar.
2 Panufnik, A. Composing Myself, London 1987, p. 166 Google Scholar.
3 see Osborne, N., Panufnik at 70, in: Tempo No. 150,09 1984, pp.2–10 Google Scholar.
4 Odwdzenie, January 1 1949. Panufnik's Lullaby also enjoyed success on international stages, and found itself in the program of the consecutive edition of the SIMC festival in Amsterdam in June 1948 – Panufnik's piece represented Poland along with Artur Malawski's Symphonic Etudes.
5 Helman, Zofia, Ncoklasycyzm w inuzyce polskiej XX wiehu, Krakow 1985, pp.73–74 Google Scholar.
5 Panufnik, , op. cit., p.190 Google Scholar.
6 ibid. pp. 190–91. It should be added that various other composers turned to early music at this time, like Panufnik writing pieces that were to a large extent a reconstruction of old melodies [e.g. Tadeusz Baird, Roman Palester].
7 On 24 March 1949, Stokowski conducted the first American performance of Panufnik's Tragic Overture at Carnegie Hall in New York. His enthusiasm for Panufnik's music lasted until the end of his life, and conducted several world premieres of his work, including Sinfoniti Elegaica, Universal Prayer, Katyn Epitaph.
9 Documents of the State Award Committee, AAN archive in Warsaw.
