Panufnik should have subtitled his Symphony No. 6 “Everything you always wanted to know about the number six but were afraid to ask.” What any of this has to do with it being “Mistica” I have no idea. This single-movement work, in (you guessed it) six contrasting sections, is not without interest but doesn’t add up to one of the composer’s more powerful or expressive statements. Are you surprised? The rest of the program, though, is pretty wonderful.
Autumn Music is a haunting triptych nearly as long as the symphony, and it has all the poetry, color, and intensity that the symphony seems to lack. Hommage à Chopin, for flute and strings, doesn’t quote the composer directly, but rather is an essay in some of the same folk idioms that appear from time to time in Chopin’s own works. It’s lovely. The Rhapsody is a lively and colorful “concerto for orchestra” that was one of the first works that Panufnik wrote in the 1950s after leaving Poland.
As with previous releases in this series, the performances are uniformly excellent and extremely well recorded. Panufnik was blacklisted in his native country essentially until the demise of Communism, and so there’s some justice to a series devoted to his music featuring committed native performers. Even the Sixth Symphony, in which purely formal elements seem to take precedence over sheer inspiration, has its moments. So if you’re curious, by all means indulge.
