Krzysztof Baculewski "Subjective Annals 60 Editions of the Festival"

The sensational Folk Music by Zygmunt Krauze, the debut of Jan Oleszkowicz, quite a few pieces by Charles Ives, plus Amériques by Edgard Varèse. The performance of George Crumb's Echoes of Time and the River for orchestra marked the beginning of the fascination with the works of this American composer. ere was French music as well: Chant après chant by Jean Barraqué and Figures - Doubles - Prismes by Pierre Boulez. Apart from another visit by Merce Cunningham and Dance Company and from John Cage, the Festival also hosted Aram Khachaturian conducting his Symphony No. 2. Tomasz Sikorski again drew attention with his work Holzwege and Henryk Mikołaj Górecki with the cantata Ad matrem.

This edition of the Festival again clashed with politics. The Ministry of Culture and Art ordered that a composition by Edison Denisov, of whom the Soviet authorities disapproved, be struck o the programme. Directives from Moscow obviously could not be questioned, and so as a 'replacement' we got the Piano Concerto by the (appointed for life) First Secretary of the Soviet Composers' Union, Tikhon Khrennikov, with the composer himself as soloist. The concert was partly boycotted by the Warsaw audience, particularly by the older generation of the musical community; the younger members, particularly pupils and students, came to the concert to have a laugh... The Repertoire Committee of the 'Warsaw Autumn' withdrew the names of its members from the programme book in protest. And Denisov's work appeared in the programme anyway - as part of Enkyklopaideia, a cycle of works commissioned from many composers from different countries by Zygmunt Krauze for his 'Musical Workshop'. The only difference was that the Russian composer appeared under the maiden name of his wife, Gala Varvarin.