Krzysztof Baculewski "Subjective Annals 60 Editions of the Festival"

The festival, which took place still earlier in September (from Saturday 12th to Sunday 20th), clearly began to approximate its present-day shape. Until 1978 it would start on Saturday and end on the following Sunday.

This time there were nineteen concerts, opera and ballet performances. Among the most important participants, and those new to the 'Warsaw Autumn', one should note the conductors: Ernest Ansermet with l'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, György Lehel with the Budapest Radio and TV Orchestra, the Parrenin String Quartet from France, violinist Wanda Wiłkomirska, pianist Tadeusz Żmudziński and flutist Severino Gazzeloni.

The dodecaphonic and experimental current, whose presence was becoming stronger every year, still mixed with neoclassical reminiscences which were a way of catching up with the missed past. The programme included works by Luigi Dallapiccola, Iannis Xenakis (tape), François Bernard Mâche (tape), Luc Ferrari (tape), Konstanty Regamey and Henri Pousseur, Edgard Varèse, the debuts of Witold Szalonek and Krzysztof Penderecki. And another lecture combined with a demonstration: this time Pierre Schaeffer demonstrated the musique concrete from ORTF studio .

The programme book of the 3rd 'Warsaw Autumn' contains a chapter with excerpts from Polish and foreign reviews of the preceding Festival. Bulgarian and Soviet opinions, which pulled the innovators to pieces and, by the same token, railed against the Festival's organisers, caused emotions to run very high. Today they sound amusing, creating the impression of ghosts from the past. Even in the Warsaw of that time they appeared anachronistic and sounded like political informers' reports, while at the same time they increased interest in and anticipation of the taste of forbidden fruit.

The Repertoire Committee of the Festival was formed before the 3rd 'Warsaw Autumn' - previously the Festival had been programmed by the Presidium of the PCU Managing Board . Members of the Committee, which remained unchanged until 1965, were: Tadeusz Baird, Andrzej Dobrowolski, Włodzimierz Kotoński, Kazimierz Serocki, Józef Patkowski, and Witold Lutosławski as its chairman.