Andzej Panufnik: Symphony No. 9 and Bassoon Concerto
Panufnik (1914-1991): Symphony No. 9 ‘Sinfonia di Speranza’ and Bassoon Concerto
Robert Thompson, bassoon; BBC Symphony Orchestra; Sir Andrzej Panufnik, cond.
Heritage Records HTGCD266 (available for purchase at www.amazon.co.uk)
To mark the centenary of the birth of Polish composer Sir Andrzej Panufnik, Heritage Records is proud to release a composer-conducted performance of his Symphony No. 9 ‘Sinfonia di Speranza’ (1987) and his Concerto for Bassoon and Chamber Orchestra (1986). Recorded shortly before Panufnik’s death in 1991, the performance features bassoonist Robert Thompson, for whom the Concerto was commissioned by the ‘Polanki’ Polish Women’s Cultural Club of Milwaukee. The album includes the composer’s remarks and performances of the two works made during a studio recording on October 6, 1987 for BBC Radio 3, which was first broadcast in 1990.
‘The first commercial release by Heritage of one of his sessions with the BBC Symphony Orchestra is much to be welcomed… Thompson invests the Bassoon Concerto with an emotional acuity equal to that of his studio recording, while the forward balance and more numerous string desks again male this seem a bigger and more involving piece… an important archival release.’
– International Record Review, May 2014
‘The Bassoon Concerto is a memorial for the tortured and murdered Polish priest Father Jerzy Popieluszko, and has a pronounced grainy grimness offset by dramatic impulses and Thompson’s beautiful lyric tone. The hopeful symphony not only takes the rainbow as a symbol, but endeavours to translate its optical principles into music. This altogether remarkable and gripping structure is conceived as a 40-minute continuous melodic line.’
– The Sunday Times, April 2014
[Sources: Boosey & Hawkes eQuarterNotes (June 2014), heritage-records.com]