Krzysztof Baculewski "Subjective Annals 60 Editions of the Festival"

Recitals juxtaposed with symphonic concerts were one of the leitmotifs of this edition, as indicated in the programme book. The Land of Ulro operatic cycle from the preceding Festival was continued. The second part, La Lointaine (after Oskar Miłosz) was composed by Osvaldas Balakauskas, and premiered at the Mały Theatre under Przemysław Fiugajski. The Silesian Quartet presented one of the most exciting events of the Festival, the Symphony of Rituals by Witold Szalonek, who had died a year earlier. We also had a single-composer concert dedicated to Roman Berger, a Pole from Bratislava, and a recital by Christine Michaela Pryn, an interesting Danish violinist. In the foyer of the Warsaw Stock Exchange in Książęca Street the ensemble Freight Train improvised music for a silent lm of 1924. From that year on, chamber music concerts took place in the newly opened Mazovian Centre of Culture and Art in Elektoralna Street. We should also note the debuts of Dobromiła Jaskot, Marcin Bortnowski and Cezary Duchnowski. The inaugural concert featured the Clarinet Concerto by Krzysztof Meyer (with Eduard Brunner), Symphony No. 4 by Maciej Jabłoński with organ solo (Jarosław Malanowicz) and Brian Current's For the Time Being, all performed by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra under Antoni Wit. In the finale, after Symphony No. 4 'At the End of the Day' by Per Nørgård, Barry Douglas played, with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gabriel Chmura, the Piano Concerto 'Resurrection' by Krzysztof Penderecki. Some part of the audience reacted to this work with hissing and booing, as listeners do in France. This work also caused a media uproar over questions of style, aesthetics and other imponderables. What aroused emotions was an aesthetic catering to popular taste combined with eclecticism, which might have suited the American audience for which the work was written, but not the listeners at a European Festival of n e w music...