Krzysztof Baculewski "Subjective Annals 60 Editions of the Festival"

The Festival opened with a concert conducted by Krzysztof Penderecki, featuring music by Andrzej Krzanowski, Marek Stachowski and Dmitri Shostakovich. The programme consisted of compositions to texts by Samuel Beckett; two Cascando settings: by Charles Dodge and Lidia Zielińska, as well as the chamber opera Come and Go by Heinz Holliger, familiar to the audience from his earlier appearances at the 'Warsaw Autumn' as oboist and conductor. A monographic concert was dedicated to Luigi Nono; Stefan Kisielewski's Piano Concerto was premiered (the composer died three days later; he listened to his Concerto on the radio in hospital), and Witold Lutosławski's Chante eurs et Chantefables was first performed in Poland (Solveig Kringlebotn, soprano). We played host to: Camerata Bern, Schönberg Ensemble, the 'Amadeus' Chamber Orchestra under Agnieszka Duczmal, Concerto Avenna led by Andrzej Mysiński, as well as Sinfonia Varsovia conducted by Grzegorz Nowak. Among the soloists, there were: cellist Andrzej Bauer, violinists Saschko Gawrilo and Barbara Górzyńska, pianists Volker Baneld, Marek Drewnowski and Zygmunt Krauze. This edition of the 'Warsaw Autumn' was also a festival of choirs and vocal ensembles, with performances by The Poznań Boys' Choir (dir. Wojciech Krolopp), the BBC Singers under Simon Joly, Neue Vokalsolisten from Stuttgart, Schola Cantorum Gedanensis under Jan Łukaszewski, the Choir of Silesian Philharmonic, RIAS-Kammerchor Berlin and Südfunk-Chor from Stuttgart.