Panufnik is memorable,
at the most trivial of levels, for music that is either extremely
quiet or very loud. There is of course a lot more to him than
that but it is one of his aural ‘signatures’. These
two symphonies of the 1970s continue the pattern. They each
owe something to either mathematics or geometry … and that
is not, in this case, a cue for music enthusiasts to exeunt
omnes.
The Sinfonia
Mistica explores the mysteries of the number six and
happens to be the composer's Sixth Symphony. It is a work
of spare sounds - minimalist but in a non-Reich sense. This
is a work of long and measured paragraphs in which mysteries
appears to open before the meditative listener. There is a
great lyrical theme in the final irresistibly surging section
contrasting with the reverential whisper of the opening four
minutes. If you know his hallmark works of the 1950s and 1960s
(e.g. Sinfonia Elegiaca, Sinfonia Sacra and
Heroic Overture) the pace and contours of this hymnal
theme will be instantly familiar. Under that arching and potent
oratory the orchestra chatters in thrumming mitrailleuse triads
related to the same chatter in the second track where basses,
horns, bassoons and clarinets batter away in iterative fury.
The Sinfonia
di Sfere (No. 5) is helpfully tracked in six sections.
We are told that it is shaped by faithful adherence to symmetry
but the composer recommended that such analysis should be
studied after the work has been heard. The pained insistence
of the searing and searching violins leads into a soliloquy
for solo trumpet. This is no harangue but music played as
if in prayer. The wandering lead thus offered is then taken
up by the horn. Chattering woodwind and spatially separated
drumming from a variety of instruments give the work forward
momentum. This dynamism is short-lived rather like the hell-bent
Blitzkrieg of the middle movement of Sinfonia Elegiaca
– also typically flanked by two big quiet movements. Orchestral
piano plays its role in the Sinfonia di Sfere at various
points including during the second Poco andante and
the following Andante which at times has a lightly
dissonant Bachian feeling. This is again relieved by antiphonal
writing for drums. There is a wildness in this writing even
if you are also conscious of patterning (3:30 in the andante
in tr. 8). Panufnik had an affection for drums (timps, side-drum,
tom-tom) and they appear in aggressive spaced-out counter-volleying
in the Molto andante which also has massed strings
that stab, shriek and surge over and through the cannonade.
This assault continues into the Molto allegro finale
which ends amid slammed-out, hammered, fast-thrusting protests:
part-groan, part-roar.
The concise notes
are by Antony Hopkins the composer and music writer. I presume
that these two works featured in his BBC 'Talking About
Music series'. It is a pity that they do not give details
about the premieres.
You can read more about these two symphonies in
Paul Conway’s superb survey
of the Panufnik symphonies.
The CD booklet contains notes in English, French
and German.
Each symphony
is laid out on the disc in separately tracked sections: four
for Mistica and six for di Sfere.
This
is a most valuable addition to the
catalogue. Congratulations to Raymond
McGill of Explore for striking the
deal with Decca to bring this exemplary
analogue recording back into the
catalogue. We can now appreciate
Panufnik's two late symphonies (five
and six of a total complement of
ten if we also count the lost Symphony
of Peace and the first two symphonies)
as works articulate through both
spiritual concentration and extreme
violence.
Rob Barnett
Panufnik
– The Symphonies
(1) 1940? Lost
(2) 1942 Lost
1. ‘Sinfonia Rustica’. 1948
(4) 1951, Symphony for Peace - withdrawn
2. Sinfonia Elegiaca, 1957
3. Sinfonia Sacra 1966
4. Sinfonia Concertante for flute, harp and
twelve solo strings 1973.
5. Sinfonia di Sfere, 1975. First
performed: LSO/David Atherton, April 1976.
6. Sinfonia Mistica, 1977.
7. Metasinfonia, 1978
8. Sinfonia Votiva, 1981
9. Sinfonia della Speranza 1986-7
10.
1990-91
for
details
London
