Krzysztof Baculewski "Subjective Annals 60 Editions of the Festival"

Today, the programme of the 1962 Festival appears somewhat eclectic. On the one hand, we have Legends of Love by Arif Melikov, performed by the Kirov State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet from Leningrad, winner of the Order of Lenin. An explanation for younger readers: Leningrad is today known as St Petersburg, and Sergey M. Kirov was a prominent communist activist and participant of the 1905 and October 1917 revolutions, honoured for his services to Leningrad. On the other hand, there are Riff 62 by Wojciech Kilar and Pithoprakta by Iannis Xenakis, as well as Karol Szymanowski (to mark his 80th birth anniversary), Anton Webern, Dmitri Shostakovich, Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Anton Webern (Concerto Op. 24). Bolesław Szabelski, then aged 66, presented his amazing, pointillistic Aphorisms 9. Foreign participants were few: LaSalle Quartet, Melos-Ensemble under Bruno Maderna. For the finale - the Polish premiere of The Wedding by Igor Stravinsky.