CPO’s wonderful complete overview of Panufnik’s orchestral works continues
with these fascinating concertos written over a period of some thirty
years.
The
Violin Concerto was first performed in 1971 not 1927
as the otherwise exemplary and detailed booklet notes state. It was written
for Yehudi Menuhin. The composer’s approach to its composition is given in
his own words which I will quote as we go through the piece.
Panufnik is quoted saying that there are three elements to bringing a new
work to fruition: 1. The reason for writing the work; 2. “then the
architectural structure, then (3) the material of which the piece is to be
built”. Later the quote ends with “in all my works I attempt to achieve a
true balance between feeling and intellect, impulse and design”. It was
Elizabeth Maconchy who said that music should be “passionately intellectual
and intellectually passionate”. Panufnik wanted to write for Menuhin a
singing and expressive work yet based on the kind of organized melodic
structures, which were his thumbprint. I can say immediately that this is
wonderfully achieved.
The work is in three movements with the central
Adagio being
marginally the longest. I was at a talk recently as part of the Presteigne
Festival, which touched on Panufnik in the context of contemporary Polish
composers when the speaker played a chord on the piano with a minor third on
top of a major chord beneath. He said that that sound “was a Panufnik
fingerprint” and this middle movement certainly demonstrates that. Its
origins may lie in Panufnik’s
Sinfonia Rustica (original version,
1948) his first essay in that form but also much further back in Polish folk
music. The composer’s intention was to “write this movement with utter
simplicity and fragility of means”. It follows a movement marked
Rubato which begins with a “quasi-cadenza” containing the seeds of
the entire work. Some of these re-emerge in the
Vivace finale,
which “continues the explorative use of minor and major thirds”. It brings
the work to joyous and humorous conclusion.
Although this performance lacks the authority of Panufnik and Menuhin from
1972 on EMI this recording is more vivid and, I have to say, Sitkovetsky
seems to be more technically secure.
Another famous performer who, by his own admission, Panufnik was lucky
enough to write for was Rostropovich. He gave the world premiere of the
Cello Concerto the year after the
composer’s death; this was Panufnik’s last major work. The composer is
quoted as saying “ the cello is my favourite musical instrument” but
it's curious then that he left this concerto until it was almost too
late; he was, though, inspired by the “great interpretative powers of
Mstislav Rostropovich”. There is no sentimentality and romantic languor. The
two movements are an
Adagio, which grows as if from the very bowels
of the earth to a powerful and traumatic climax before fading back to its
starting point. The slightly shorter
Vivace is quite brittle and
exciting with a curious almost desiccated cadenza falling towards its
energetic ending. The composer wrote about the construction and the formal
inspiration as derived from the 'mandorla' - a “palindromic
almond shape figure of two equal, overlapping circles”. He continues, “the
concerto could be a palindrome within itself as well as a reflection of each
other”.
Raphael Wallfisch is no mean substitute and he captures the work’s fervour
and inner passions with complete conviction.
The interesting thing about the
Piano Concerto is that
it’s the middle movement, marked
Larghetto molto tranquillo that
seems to steal the show. Yet it is so incredibly lacking in notes and it’s
the longest movement of the three. One feels the piano part could be played
by a pianist of quite limited ability let alone John Ogdon who performed it
in 1983. It certainly captured my imagination, but the work’s history is
that the original version was first heard in Birmingham in 1961 but Panufnik
was dissatisfied by it, more especially the first movement. For its next
outing the following year it became a two-movement work: the
Larghetto and the
Presto molto agitato. The problem with
that was possibly that the
Presto, which runs to just two minutes
less than the
Larghetto, also contained a quite lengthy passage of
slow music. In 1982 Panufnik added the tense but rhythmically exhilarating
opening
Entrata - a four minute romp which balances the tempi and
mood and is full of percussion. Ewa Kupiec is a name new to me but she
coaxes crystal clear playing out of the instrument in the outer movements
and is beautifully and sensitively balanced in the central one.
The forty-four page booklet comes with detailed essays in three languages
by Christoph Schlüren, several black and white photos of the performers and
of the composer and the usual biographies. This highly desirable recording
project is superbly focused and balanced in the usual CPO style.
Gary Higginson
