62nd Warsaw Autumn

Festival Overview

The 62nd annual ‘Warsaw Autumn’ [Warszawska Jesień] International Festival of Contemporary Music took place from 20-28 September. The theme “Pneuma – ExpandedReality” was incorporated in over 50 events, including two at Warsaw Autumn Hits the Club, seven at Little Warsaw Autumn, and a dozen fringe events.

This year’s Warsaw Autumn concluded a triptych of ideas that began with the 2017 program. 2017’s “Trans/avant-garde” addressed musical radicalism and various avant-garde movements with their social agendas. 2018’s “Res Publica” tackled different aspects of identity, shaping our consciousness, including national and social. 2019’s “Pneuma” nurtures the nature of the undefined. Each year, Warsaw Autumn presented a wide variety of contemporary and twentieth-century music from Poland and all over the world.

The main festival featured eleven premieres of works by Monika Dalach, Magdalena Długosz, Paweł Hendrich, Zygmunt Krauze, Cécile Marti, Adrián Mocanu, Piotr Roemer, Agnieszka Stulgińska, Piotr Tabakiernik, Tadeusz Wielecki, and Sławomir Wojciechowski, with more premieres at Warsaw Autumn Hits the Club and Little Warsaw Autumn. The program also featured two large musical shows: Aperghis’s Thinking Things presented by IRCAM; and Rønsholdt’s Gaze for Gaze presented by the Danish ensemble SCENATET, the VRC choir and the audience. This year’s Festival also focus ed on the music of Swiss female composers Cécile Marti and Katharina Rosenberger as well as Icelandic female composers Thurídur Jónsdóttir and Bára Gísladóttir.

2019 Premieres by date/venue

Friday, September 20 – 29

  • Sculpture Park in Królikarnia
    • Krzysztof Cybulski Pneumatophones Interactive Installation

Friday, September 20 – 29

  • Jazz Club Aquarium:
    • Jarosław Kapuściński  and OpenEnded Group (Marc Downie, Paul Kaiser) America Afterimaged installation with 3D video projection

Friday, September 20

  • National Philharmonic Concert Hall:
    • Zygmunt Krauze III Piano Concerto – Okruchy pamięci [Fragments of Memory] (commissioned by Warsaw Autumn, Adam Mickiewicz Institute, L’Orchester National de Metz / Cité musicale – Metz and the National Philharmonic)
    • Magdalena Długosz Na krawędzi Światła [On the edge of light] (Warsaw Autumn commission)
  • National Philharmonic Chamber Hall:
    • Monika Dalach Shout # 1-3
    • Sławomir Wojciechowski Handmade (Warsaw Autumn commission)

Saturday, September 21

  • Sculpture Park in Królikarnia:
    • Katarzyna Gacek-Duda, Rafał Rudawski Breathing (Warsaw Autumn commission)
  • Theater Institute:
    • Thomas Lehn Ruptures
    • Jerzy Rogiewicz Exotic rhythms

Sunday, September 22

  • Witold Lutosławski Polish Radio Concert Studio
    • Peter Roemer Fantasma (commissioned by Warsaw Autumn and Association ZAiKS)
    • Cécile Marti Seeing Time 1
    • Paweł Hendrich Absusurrus (commissioned by Warsaw Autumn, Culturescapes and Association of Authors ZAiKS)

Monday, September 23

  • Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph Church
    • Sławomir Czarnecki O Crux benedicta
    • Anna Ignatowicz-Glińska Agnus Dei
    • Paweł Łukaszewski Gwiazd siewco i księżyców [Sower of Stars and Moons]
    • Paweł Łukaszewski Pacierz za zmarłych [Prayer for the Dead]
  • IMKA Theater
    • Agnieszka Stulgińska FMYF (commissioned by Warsaw Autumn and the Association of Authors ZAiKS)
    • Agnieszka Stulgińska OMYM (commissioned by Warsaw Autumn and the Association of Authors ZAiKS)

Tuesday, September 24

  • Masovian Institute of Culture
    • Krzesimir Dębski Lux sphere (a sound gift in homage to Bogusław Schaeffer’s memory)
    • Giovanni Fontana Poesie sonore per BS (a sound gift in homage to Bogusław Schaeffer’s memory)
  • Witold Lutosławski Polish Radio Concert Studio
    • Peter Tabakiernik De Trinitate (comissioned by the Anime Foundation and Warsaw Autumn)

Friday, September 27

  • Witold Lutosławski Polish Radio Concert Studio
    • Adrian Mocanu metamorphoses: nychterídes (commissioned by Warsaw Autumn and Association of Authors ZAiKS)
  • Theater Institute
    • Dominik Strycharski Flauto Dolce Techno
    • Edgars Rubenis untitled

Saturday, September 28

  • Museum of Warsaw
    • Małgorzata Kazińska, Tomasz Skweres In Search of the Sound (a musical walk, commissioned by Warsaw Autumn and the Association of Authors ZAiKS)
  • National Philharmonic
    • Tadeusz Wielecki Anamnesis (Warsaw Autumn comission)

For performance details and a full program, visit warszawska-jesien.art.pl.

[Sources: polmic.pl, warszawska-jesien.art.pl]