Panufnik / Sitkovetsky / Wallfisch - Symphonic Works 8 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Featured on the present recording are three concertos from Andrzej Panufnik the Piano Concerto (1961), Violin Concerto (1971) and Cello Concerto (1991). Written at the behest of Yehudi Menuhin, Panufnik said of his Violin Concerto, InchI felt the pull of my childhood memories - the smell of wood as my father constructed his instruments, and my mother's constant playing - so that the work became a sort of pilgrimage into my past and inevitably emerged filled with Polish atmosphere.Inch Structurally based on the shape of the mandorla, the Cello Concerto was the composer's last major work, premiered after his death by Mstislav Rostropovich and the London Symphony Orchestra.

A large part of Feliks Nowowiejski's work, especially his larger works, remained in manuscripts and soon after the composer's death in 1946, he was forgotten. As if he'd faded into oblivion. This state of affairs lasted until the last few years, when part of the Polish music community began to notice severe gaps in knowledge about the work of the composer. The Opole Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Przemyslaw Neumann has also played a big role in decoding Felix Nowowiejski's music. The testimony of this is a smaller album that gathers the symphonic works of Rota's creator, previously only rarely performed and almost absent in phonography. These are extremely interesting, selected symphonic works, composed with incredible impetus, full of melodic invention, pathetic culminations and deep romantic aesthetics.

The Double Concerto for Viola and Cello was written in 2012 to mark the bicentenary of the Musikverein in Vienna. It is a work with a clearly defined, neo-romantic architecture. Even though the composer employs profuse semi-tones as a form-shaping element, the music also abounds in consonances that soften the many tensions therein. The narration's starting point is determined by the opening cantabile for the two solo instruments, which is of a romantic character. As the music proceeds, the two architectural planes start to be mutually interwoven, with a free dialogue between them lasting until the end of the piece. It is worth drawing the listener's attention to the highly inventive solo cadenzas that are introduced by the composer in order to differentiate the mood of the work's various sections. The version for accordion and orchestra which is featured in the present recording casts a fresh light on the composition. All the contrasts that are responsible for the structural fragmentation unexpectedly gain even sharper contours. Moreover, all the solo interludes, in view of the distinctly different character of the accordion, make the polemics between the neo-romantic and playful aesthetics even more exciting. Concerto per flauto ed orchestra da camera was written in 1992. Commissioned by L'Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, it was dedicated to flautist Jean-Pierre Rampal. The work falls into two extensive movements Andante and Allegro con brio. Lyrical fragments of a somewhat impressionistic provenance predominate in the first movement. In contrast to the Double Concerto for Viola and Cello, this work is notable for it's highly autonomous solo part, which on the one hand constitutes an intriguing counterpoint with the orchestral interludes, while on the other being very much to the forefront. Brief but strongly chromaticised melodic motifs are an important element th