The Polish Music Information Center POLMIC has prepared an online gallery of Krzysztof Penderecki's archival photographs from the collection of the Polish Composers' Union, which is now available on the POLMIC website.
Krzysztof Pendercki was associated with the "Warsaw Autumn" International Festival of Contemporary Music from the very beginning of his career. In 1959, the festival featured the world premiere of Strophes for soprano, voice, reciter and 10 instruments, for which the composer received the first prize in the 2nd Competition of Young Composers of the Polish Composers' Union. To this day, over 55 compositions by Krzysztof Penderecki have been presented during the "Warsaw Autumn" concerts, including world premieres of Dimensions of Time and Silence (1960) and Canon (1962), as well as many Polish premieres. The composer repeatedly conducted his own works during the festival, and also – with Sinfonia Varsovia – works by Grażyna Bacewicz, Boris Blacher, Andrzej Krzanowski, Marek Stachowski and Dymitr Szostakowicz. The presented online collection includes photographs from the concerts and interesting meetings in the lobbies, press conferences and festival banquets. Krzysztof Penderecki is portrayed by photographers cooperating for years with "Warsaw Autumn", including Andrzej Zborski, Andrzej Glanda, Jan Hausbrandt and Grzegorz Mart.
The composer's relation with the Polish Composers' Union is equally long. From 1981 as an Honorary Member, and from 2015 as the Honorary President of the Polish Composers' Union, Krzysztof Penderecki has actively participated in the life of the organization for years. In the gallery you can find, among others, photos of the composer from the 38th General Assembly of the Polish Composers' Union in 2015 and the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the Polish Composers' Union in 2016.
The Photo Gallery of Krzysztof Penderecki is regularly supplemented with new copies as part of the project of full archiving, digitization and sharing of photographs from the Polish Composers' Union collection.
Agnieszka Cieślak-Krupa
