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New CDs of Panufnik's Sinfonia Elegiaca and Violin Concerto

(May 2004)

A historic recording of Andrzej Panufnik’s Sinfonia Elegiaca (Symphony No.2), Nocturne and Rhapsody, with the Louisville Orchestra conducted by Robert Whitney, has been reissued in the First Editions series (FECD-0017). All three recordings date from the 1960s and were premiere recordings.



The liner notes by Marco Shirodkar describe how the works are characteristic of the composer’s "reconciliation of human expression with a search for order through abstract beauty". Nocturne was written in 1947 as a night vision to salve the traumas following the Second World War and Sinfonia Elegiaca, premiered by Leopold Stokowski in 1957, was a tribute to the victims of the same war. Rhapsody recalls happier times, drawing upon the folk music of Panufnik’s Polish motherland, particularly in the joyful central dance-based movement.

Another valuable Panufnik release is a new recording of the Violin Concerto, featuring the 20-year-old Alexander Sitkovetsky, with his uncle Dmitri Sitkovetsky conducting the New European Strings Chamber Orchestra (EMI Classics 557 440-2). Written for Yehudi Menuhin, the concerto displays singing qualities which continue to attract leading soloists.

In the concert hall Katyn Epitaph has been much in evidence recently, with Tadaaki Otaka conducting its Japanese premiere in Sapporo last October and featuring it with the Warsaw Philharmonic in March. Gerard Schwarz continues to champion Panufnik’s music, conducting the Concertino with the Seattle Symphony last season, Old Polish Suite with the London Mozart Players last December and the Heroic Overture with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic in September.




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