In April Mycielski goes to hospital for an abdominal tumour surgery. Shortly before the surgery he quickly completes Last Symphony. The surgery is a success, but the diagnosis – centroblastic lymphoma – gives no hope for recovery. Mycielski must regularly report to the hospital for treatment. 

In September his Liturgia sacra is performed at the Warsaw Autumn to great acclaim. The work earns the composer the Solidarity Award (1986) and the Polish Composers’ Union’ Prize (1987).

In April Mycielski finishes composing Fragments for choir and small orchestra to words by Juliusz Słowacki. It will be his last work.

In early May he goes to Poznań, where his orchestral Fantasia is performed at the Poznań Music Spring festival.

On 5 August Zygmunt Mycielski dies in a hospital in ul. Spartańska, Warsaw.

In September Fragments is performed at the Warsaw Autumn.

In his tribute to Mycielski Jerzy Waldorff writes:

For me, my late friend Zygmunt was someone else, someone from outside the official obituaries. Obviously: a composer, writer, activist, and above all – one of the last Europeans in the old style in our country. Mycielski came from a historic family and he was aware of that. But not in the sense that he demanded any special treatment from those around him, but thought – on the contrary – that he was bound by a particularly serious attitude to the world. [...] For these reasons he considered it his duty to maintain around him the widest possible interest in culture at the highest level [...] Until the last moment he had a small room for himself in Chmielna Street, but after his death he wanted to be laid to rest in the vault of the church in his home village of Wiśniowa, where his coffin was placed next to the coffins of his ancestors.  ("Gorzkie żale", "Polityka" 1987) 

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