Andrzej Panufnik, 1983, photo: Clive Barda / ArenaPAL / Forum
Alan Hall's report on the musical friendship of composers Witold Lutosławski and Andrzej Panufnik was awarded the Prix Europa for Best European Radio Music Programme of 2012 in late October. The programme repeats on the 22nd of December 2012 on BBC Radio 4
Alan Hall's report gathers recollections from people close to both composers, including Panufnik's wife Camilla, musicologist Adrian Thomas and Panufnik biographer Beata Bolesławska. It shares wartime Warsaw's ambiance and the role their music played in liting people's spirits during the brutal German occupation and then the communist-era occupation that followed. Stories are told against the backdrop of café life in Warsaw, in which the pair were a piano duet at the café Sztuka i Moda (Art and Fashion), and excerpts are included from some of their finest works.
The Prix Europa jury report stated,
...the programme was exceptional for involving listeners in a profound human story of war-time Poland, following the destinies of two major composers, Panufnik and Lutosławski. It succeeded in communicating an important episode in 20th-century musical history to a wide audience. By interleaving thoughtful personal testimony with focused expert commentary, the production aroused a deep sense of empathy which was beautifully resolved in both creative and human terms...
Witold Lutosławski was born in 1913, Andrzej Panufnik one year later. They completed studies at the Warsaw Conservatory within a year of one another. Panufnik studied conducting at the Music Academy in Vienna under Feliks Weingartner, moved to Paris and London, then returned to Poland two months before Germany overran Poland in 1939 to start the Second World War. Warsaw's vibrant musical spirit had suffered the destruction of the Philharmonic and Opera in the German assault. Music continued in the underground, with illegal concerts and lessons in private homes. In the city's cafés, Panufnik and Lutosławski played impromptu performances of Mendelssohn, Gershwin, Paganini, and popular songs and melodies. They played duets, of which only the Paganini Variations for Two Pianos survived, from which Hall's charming, insightful report took its title.
Panufnik composed underground songs during the war, including Warsaw's Children. After the war he moved to Kraków, becoming the head conductor of the city's Philharmonic. He continued to compose under the socialist authorities in Poland, but his work was considered overly formalist and insubordinate to socialist-realist doctrines. He left Poland illegally in 1954, moving to the U.K., where he met the woman who would become his wife. He was music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra from 1957 to '59, then devoted himself to composition. His works were banned in Poland until 1977; he returned to Poland only once, in 1990, just after the fall of communism. He was knighted for services to British culture by Queen Elizabeth II in 1991, a few months before his death.
After the war Witold Lutosławski worked for Polish Radio and composed popular music for radio and theatre, publishing some of this work under his pseudonym "Derwid". He helped organise the inaugural Warsaw Autumn Festival of Contemporary Music in 1956, and remained closely linked with the prestigious annual festival. The Lutosławski Year will be celebrated in Poland and internationally in 2013, by order of the Polish Senate.
Alan Hall has been a producer and lecturer at Falling Tree Productions since 1998, with numerous programmes to his credit. Hall's Warsaw Variations premiered on the 20th of December 2011 on BBC Radio 4. It was awarded the Prix Europa Prize in late October 2012 in Berlin at the European Broadcasting Festival. It will be rebroadcast on the 22nd of December 2012 at 8:30 p.m. on BBC 4.
Listen to the live streaming of the programme:
Author: Agnieszka Le Nart