New Andrzej Panufnik web-site

www.panufnik.com has just been launched, in preparation for centenary of the composer's birth in 2014. The site includes recorded samples and photos, many documenting the composer's remarkably dramatic life. Surviving in war-torn Poland, he lost most of his relatives and all of the music he composed before he was 30, as his manuscripts were destroyed by fire in the Warsaw uprising.

The audio samples are all taken from cpo's new series, Panufnik: The Symphonic Works. There is also an excellent discography, listing not only the current releases but those not necessarily currently available. One fascinating area is the selection of diagrams, which are designs for compositions, a remarkable insight into the way that Panufnik created his work. A single diagram encapsulates the entire design of the Sinfonia Concertante of 1973. There is also a section on Panufnik's early film scores with a clip from the 1938 film Strachy.