Andrzej Panufnik is appreciated primarily for his symphonic works. Yet his oeuvre includes several compositions with the participation of a chorus, and they are collected on this album. All of them come from the second, UK period of the composer’s life, although it should be noted that in some of them he refers to both Polish themes and music created before he left Poland in 1954. Then, taking advantage of a short stay at a recording session for Swiss Radio, Panufnik, instead of returning to the country, thanks to the help of friends got to London and asked for political asylum there. He visited Poland only in 1990, after the democratic changes. His music and name were banned in his native country until 1977. At that time, he was building his professional position in the United Kingdom. (…)

Panufnik’s first years in the UK were not easy, but getting married, as well as the composition award he received in Monaco a few months earlier (for Sinfonia sacra), allowed him to look into the future more optimistically. Therefore, Song to the Virgin Mary can be seen as an expression of all these feelings, and thework itself can be treated as a kind of gift to the Mother of God. It is a simple choral piece with a prayerful character, for which Panufnik chose the text of a medieval anonymous Polish Latin poem (…) The melodic theme of the song refers to both plainchant and Polish folk music. Based on the pentatonic scale, it appears in all voices, in the harmonic layer creating double major-minor chords (with a minor and major third at the same time), and from time to time also more dissonant combinations. Thanks to this, the whole thing gains a raw and ascetic sound aura, full of passionate tension. (…)

Invocation for Peace is a work written in 1972, commissioned by the Southampton Youth Choir and Orchestra. This is not a completely new composition, as the composer used the third, choral movement of his Symphony of Peace – written in Poland in 1951. (…)

In 1968–1969, the cantata Universal Prayer was written for four solo voices, three harps, organ and mixed chorus with words by Alexander Pope. It is also one of the most important works in Andrzej Panufnik’s oeuvre – both in terms of the musical language used and the ideological message. The composer chose the text of the 18th-century English poet who, like him, lived in Twickenham. (…)

Winter Solstice for soprano and baritone solo, mixed chorus and instrumental ensemble with words by Camilla Jessel was written at the end of 1972. This time the theme of the cantata was related to Christmas, and the composition was commissioned by the Thames Chamber Choir & Orchestra from Kingston upon Thames near London.
Prof. Beata Bolesławska-Lewandowska
Art Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences (transl. by Anna Marks)