Krzysztof Baculewski "Subjective Annals 60 Editions of the Festival"

Polish music took pride of place at the 2006 Festival, but it was presented in an international context. The Festival also underlined some permanently present musical phenomena; in this edition, it focused on the string quartet, which was the protagonist of an extremely significant event: a marathon of Polish string quartets, by the Silesian Quartet and Quartet Dafô. Between midday and 11 p.m., in the Warsaw Philharmonic Chamber Music Hall, they played nineteen works, including Play by Tadeusz Baird, Dorikos by Krzysztof Knittel, Messages by Andrzej Panufnik and Farewell Night by Zbigniew Bargielski. The ensemble Camerata Silesia appeared on a number of occasions: in Canticum Canticorum Salomonis by Krzysztof Penderecki with Sinfonia Varsovia conducted by Peter Hirsch, in Das atmende Klarsein by Luigi Nono and, together with the Choir of the Polish Radio in Kraków and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gabriel Chmura - in Introduction to the Mystery - a prologue to the musical drama Moby Dick by Eugeniusz Knapik. The Symphony Orchestra of the Academy of Music in Kraków conducted by Wojciech Czepiel played, among other works, Symphony No. 2 by Agata Zubel and Slonimsky's Earbox by John Adams. We heard the second part of the operatic saga Kommander Kobayashi consisting of two operas: Sergey Nevsky's Die Zerstörung von Moskau ist keine Lösung and Aleksandra Gryka's Scream You. ere was also the première of Zygmunt Krauze's opera Yvonne, Princess of Burgundy. The final concert (apart from a vast composition by Eugeniusz Knapik) recalled Roman Haubenstock-Ramati (Symphony K of 1967) and featured Piano Concerto No. 3 by Juraj Beneš, a Slovak composer who had died two years previously. To mark the 'Warsaw Autumn''s 50th anniversary, the programme included a number of works performed at the Festival many years earlier, which by then had become historical. Apart from string quartets, these were compositions by Tomasz Sikorski, Andrzej Dobrowolski, Krzysztof Penderecki, Augustyn Bloch (who died that year), Tomasz Sikorski and Luciano Berio. The programme also included well-known names: Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, Pierre Boulez, György Kurtág, Ton Bruynèl, Salvatore Sciarrino, John Cage, Tristan Murail, Steve Reich, Helmut Lachemann, as well as Jerzy Kornowicz, Anna Zawadzka-Gołosz, Magdalena Długosz, Krzysztof Knittel and others. Sławomir Kupczak made his debut; ensemble debuts included Ensemble Phoenix from Basel, the Choir of the Opera and Philharmonic of Podlasie, and Streichquartett Köln.