Krzysztof Baculewski "Subjective Annals 60 Editions of the Festival"

The motto of the 'Warsaw Autumn' 2015 - dynamistatics - was coined by Krzysztof Szwajgier, whose eponymous essay opens the programme book. This neologism aptly reflects the ambiguity of the terms dynamics and statics, as frequently applied to music. Half a century earlier, Monika Gorczycka had come forward with the term 'static energy', used with reference to Karol Szymanowski's music. Both terms bring out the apparent contradiction between the two juxtaposed elements. The phenomenon to which this edition of the Festival was dedicated is by no means unknown, but may not have received appropriate attention and/or recognition.

'Frozen' time appears in La Monte Young's The Second Dream of the High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer of 1962 as well as the recent Slices by Alvin Lucier (2007) and Baobab by Phill Niblock (2011). Action, drama and change can be found in Philippe Monoury's Zones de turbulences (2013) and James Dillon's New York Triptych (2012); new complexity - in Brian Ferneyhough's La Chute d'Icare (1988) and Witold Szalonek's Improvisations sonoristiques (1968). And finally, the high and low tides of musical energy can be heard in Giacinto Scelsi's Anahit (1965), Gérard Grisey's Périodes (1974), Toshio Hosokawa's Woven Dreams (2010), and even in Paweł Szymański's Partita III (1986). 'Frozen movement', on the other hand, imbues Jerzy Kornowicz's The Big Crossing (2013). Debuts of Michał Pawełek, Kasper Teodor Toeplitz (quasi noise) and Marta Śniady (Aer of 2015 for clarinets and ensemble).

In all the groups of works performed at this 'Warsaw Autumn', a wide range of dates of composition was represented, which demonstrates the long-time rooting of these phenomena in new music. Other events of note included a concert by the Leoš Janáček Philharmonic of Ostrava - featuring a demanding programme, with Mural by José María Sánchez-Verdú. New venues: Praska Drukarnia (Old Printing House in Praga) and ATM Studio in Wawer, which hosted the first performance of Jagoda Szmytka's multimedia opera Lost Play, drawing on pop culture and the internet in an ironic-critical context.

The 'Little Warsaw Autumn' was now almost as long as the main Festival.