Symphony No.3 "Sinfonia Sacra" - Andrzej Panufnik

Описание: Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Łukasz Borowicz.

I - Three Visions. Maestoso (0:00) - Larghetto (2:09) - Allegro assai (5:46) - Agitato - Hymn. Andante sostenuto (10:27) - Maestoso

Panufnik's Symphony No.3 was composed in 1963, being commissioned by a group of Polish exiles in the United States in the form of a grant of the Kosciuszko Foundation. They requested a piece to celebrate the incoming date of Poland's Millennium in 1966, which also coincided with its catholic faith and statehood. The requirement of the commission was that the work had to be Polish in character, and reflect the country's Catholic tradition. These were elements of Polish history that the Communist regime in Poland were repressing. It was premiered in Monte Carlo on August 12 of 1964, performed by the Monte Carlo Opera Orchestra conducted by Louis Frémaux. The piece was awarded the first Prince Rainier First Prize in that year. It quickly became Panufnik's most famous work, being widely performed and recorded.

The entire symphony is built on the Bogurodzica, a chant that is the first known hymn in the Polish language. This hymn's name means "Mother of God". Through the Middle Ages, Bogurodzica, like a national anthem, was sung not only in church as a prayer to the Virgin, but also as an invocation on the battle-fields by the Polish knights. Both these factors, heroic and religious, motivated Panufnik to incorporate it into his symphony, stressing their emotional power. Therefore, without reading too much literary, programmatic meaning into the music, the listener might still feel the atmosphere of the battlefield and of prayer, these two persistently repeated elements having dominated Polish life throughout all the thousand years of its tragic history.

Written in a single continuous movement, the symphony can be divided in two main parts; three visions and a hymn. These visions are all based on the first three intervals of the Bogurodzica (D-C-F-E). The first one begins with a noble and solemn antiphonal fanfare by four trumpets, based on the perfect fourth (C-F) of the hymn. The second vision is contemplative, almost mystical in nature. It features solo strings and it's based on the major second (D-C) of the hymn, oscillating between minor and major seconds as it unfolds. The third vision is violent and apocalyptic, opening with rhythmic figures from solo percussion. Here the biting, harsh dissonance of the minor second rules (F-E).

The rest of the orchestra joins in to produce an agitated and dramatic tutti which abruptly ends in silence, thus ending the first part. As we hear, it is typical of Panufnik to build his music from brief melodic cells that restrict his choice of available notes and intervals, as he does in this piece. The second part begins with pianissimo violin harmonics, with the hymn gradually appearing through multiple instruments, growing into a more and more ardent invocation until at last the full melody of the Bogurodzica finally breaks through in its full form. At this point, the four antiphonal trumpets return with the opening fanfare from Vision I. The combination of the heroic trumpets and the religious hymn theme bring the work to a dramatic close.

Picture: "Adoption of Christianity, 965 AD, from the series 'History of Civilization in Poland'" (1889) by the Polish painter Jan Matejko.

Sources: https://tinyurl.com/28r4rsmg, https://tinyurl.com/253e8rkn and https://tinyurl.com/26y2pmxc

Unfortunately, the score is not freely available.