ОТКРЫТИЕ ФЕСТИВАЛЯ ПОЛЬСКОЙ ПЕСНИ В ВИТЕБСКЕ - 20 июля 1988

WHERE DID THE SLAVIANSKIY BAZAAR BEGIN - OPENING OF THE POLISH SONG FESTIVAL IN VITEBSK July 20, 1988 Fragment of the information program "Vremya"    • ОТКРЫТИЕ ФЕСТИВАЛЯ ПОЛЬСКОЙ ПЕСНИ В ВИТЕБС...   !!!!! THANKS FOR DONATIONS - dzen.ru/pivnenko?donate=true I HOPE THE HOLIDAY WILL REPEAT The first all-Union festival of Polish song in Vitebsk, in my opinion, opened about ten years later than it should have. After all, Soviet song festivals in Zielona Gora (by the way, a twin city of the city on the Western Dvina) have been held for 24 years already. And the fact that the festival took place and aroused great interest is a confirmation of our love for Polish song. Vitebsk is a city with an ancient culture, it is more than a thousand years old. Many people know that Marc Chagall was born here, Malevich painted his mysterious canvases, but few know that the famous Polish composer Oginski lived and worked in the Vitebsk region. And it is wonderful that under the blue sky of Vitebsk, a city with original cultural traditions, a real celebration took place. The beautiful summer amphitheater "Forum", which was built in just six months, accommodated only 30 thousand lovers of Polish song, and applications for concerts were submitted six times more. People who did not get into the "Forum" watched the concerts from the slopes of nearby hills. Secretary of the Central Committee of the PUWP Andrzej Vasilevsky said that the Vitebsk festival is an example of the mass rapprochement of our cultures, an example of new forms and contacts. Gala concerts of masters of Polish and Soviet song, competition performances were broadcast by Belarusian, Polish and Central television, the programs were shown on the Intervision channels. Two wonderful orchestras - "Alex-band" under the direction of Alexander Malishevsky and the State Concert Orchestra of the Belarusian SSR under the direction of Mikhail Finberg - accompanied all the performances. Finberg's orchestra did a great job, the musicians simply did not leave the theater from morning until night. This festival, it seems to me, can compete with any similar competition in our country. The most ardent sympathies of the audience are confirmation of this. What caused such enthusiasm? Firstly, most of the amateur contestants immediately reached such a professional level that the Sochi, Yalta and even, forgive me Raimonds Pauls, Jurmala festivals can envy. This was a real start of the European song festival. There were also problems that were especially noticeable to me as a member of the jury. The main one is the diversity of genres. Soloists, VIA, folklore groups and, finally, rock groups performed. Is it compatible in one competition? We had to compare the incomparable. And yet, despite the genre eclecticism, there were singers and groups that stood out for their skill. I would like to mention the winner of the 1st prize, Gemma Khalid. I hopefully guess that she is the future star of our stage. Possessing an original voice, she does not imitate anyone, she is very original, emotional. You can feel a person and an actress in her. Young people always need help. In order for an artist's destiny to take place, impresarios are needed first of all. There are none in our country. Therefore, the winners will have to fight for themselves, knock on the doors of television and radio, on the doors of the Melodiya company, in order to record and act. This is a tough fight. I wish each of the festival winners - Skorozhonok, a singer from Grodno, and the groups "Orfey", "Delta", "Karavan", and the charming singer from Moldova Ponomarenko, and Afanasyeva from Belarus, and Zakharova from Kaliningrad - that there would be people next to them who would help them to vividly demonstrate their creative individuality, enrich their repertoire, appear on television and radio. Only then will their names become known. The Vitebsk festival helps to understand the culture and soul of the brotherly Polish people. It reveals the potential of our performers, whose ranks in a year, when, I hope, this magnificent holiday will be repeated, of course, will be replenished with new names. Edita PEHA. People's Artist of the RSFSR (based on materials from https://www.krugozor-kolobok.ru/) #pasttime #journalism #news #history #chronicle #20July #1988 #vitebsk #slavyanskybazaar #poland #ussr #songfestival #music #sovietunion ©PK-Nikolay Pivnenko-2025