MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW
Plain text for smartphones & printers


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

Support us financially by purchasing this disc from
Andrzej PANUFNIK (1914-1991)
Concertino for Timpani, Percussion and Strings (1979/80) [15:41]*
Sinfonia di Speranza (Symphony No. 9) (1986) [42:33]
Konzerthausorchester Berlin/Lukasz Borowicz
Michael Oberaigner (timpani), Christian Löffler (percussion)*
rec. 15-18 November 2011, Konzerthaus Berlin
CPO 777 685-2 [58:38]

The CPO label continues its valuable series of recordings by the great Polish composer Andrzej Panufnik. Collectors will need little persuading to add this title to their collections, and the performances are every bit up to the expected standard.
 
I’ve known the Concertino for Timpani, Percussion and Strings since spending £ 5.69 in Bath Classical Records in 1981 on a Unicorn-Kanchana DKP 9016 with a Panufnik programme by the London Symphony Orchestra. This was re-released with the excellent Sinfonia Sacra on Unicorn’s ‘Souvenir Series’, but you will only be able to find second-hand copies of this these days. An Alto or Regis re-release of those titles would be terrific. Of the two works on this CPO programme the Concertino is closest to ‘old-school’ Panufnik, with its beautiful Canto II movement, intensely dramatic Finale and distinctive rhythms and harmonies. It’s a shame the remarkable glissando timpani notes in the fourth Canto II movement aren’t allowed to speak much in the recorded balance. I was always taught not to use timpani as a melodic instrument, but Panufnik shows us how to ignore that rule to magical effect here. Otherwise this recording is a superbly detailed and atmospheric rendition of a masterpiece for percussion and orchestra.
 
In 1987 I was in my last year as a student at the Royal Academy of Music, and I remember comment on the Royal Festival Hall première of the Sinfonia di Speranza being somewhat muted. For those of us more used to earlier works such as the spectacular Sinfonia Sacra Panufnik’s later works had begun to sound a little too formulaic, but now with over 25 years distance it is easier to take a more objective view. Yes, this Ninth Symphony is more abstract than those earlier works, but if you are prepared to take the long view, appreciating the architecture of the symphony as a whole and assimilating its various sections in a cumulative way, then the power of the piece becomes irrefutable. Panufnik’s words are quoted in the booklet, elaborating on the symphony’s “continuous, flowing melodic line” and its various arcs, the whole examining “the laws of geometric optics, those mysterious hidden relations such as refractions within reflection and symmetries within symmetry.”
 
This CPO release divides the symphony into 17 tracks with rehearsal numbers as reference points, so further study with score to hand would be a fascinating exercise. With Panufnik you always have a sense of mystery and spiritual dimensions, and the Sinfonia di Speranza is no exception, with quiet sustained strings coloured by a muted harpsichord in some passages, the latter also adding celestial sparkle at other moments, and you can also expect full orchestral effects with rasping winds and brass. Panufnik’s “attempting to balance a severe, self-imposed technical discipline with an expression of [] deeply felt emotions” is perhaps not an ideal place to commence an exploration of his work, but for those already infused with this musical idiom and approach the Symphony No. 9 will provide another richly rewarding journey.
 
Dominy Clements 
Richly rewarding.