1920–1929

1920

The young Palester joins the Straż Wawelska [Wawel Guard] youth organisation.

1921

In the summer of that year Palester goes with his father to Lviv where he stays at a boarding house in Tuwim Street. He joins his father during inspections connected with a typhus epidemic. In the autumn he begins his education in grade 5 of the King Casimir the Great Grammar School. He passes entrance exams to the Conservatory of the Polish Musical Society and is taught piano by Maria Sołtys and harmony by Adam Sołtys.

Initially Mrs Sołtys tortured me with hand positioning and similar problems which to me were as boring as the discussions about this or that type of fingering. But I took to her relatively quickly.

[Adam Sołtys] was a composer, conductor, musicologist and, first of all, an extraordinarily knowledgeable theoretician with pedagogical talent, who could teach all theoretical subjects.

1922

During his student days Palester becomes acquainted with the works of contemporary composers, attends various concerts and is an active boy scout. His father marries Maria Sulisławska.

1923

Palester makes first attempts at composing.

While still enchanted by this delicious theme of the finale of the G major Concerto I thought it would be very pleasant to use it as a theme for more complex variations. So I got down to work – of course on the piano mainly – and wrote the first variation surrouding the theme with semiquaver passages for the right hand and the second with triplet movement. The style was Mozartian, so from the third variation I made the work more difficult for myself, trying to underline the theme with altered chords and in chromatic progression. It was fine, but the contrast with the previous style was too sharp – it jarred – and I had to make that transition smoother by means of an additional variation.

1924

Roman’s father, Henryk Palester, is offered a job at the Ministry of Health in Warsaw and moves to the capital. Roman stays in Lviv. He visits his family during the Christmas period and for the first time attends a concert at the Warsaw Philharmonic Hall.

Very pleasant first impression – amazing shiny wooden floors, huge purple rectangles of damask lining on the walls and ushers in splendid red jackets with golden buttons – all this suggests considerable wealth and panache. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the entire programme; all I know that Strauss’ Don Juan was performed after the interval. Fitelberg conducted and it was then that I saw him for the first time. I knew that Strauss’ symphonic poems were his specialty but I didn’t really understand at the time what it meant.

1925

On 12 June Roman Palester passes his final exams, receiving satisfactory marks. He then leaves for Warsaw. He fails to get to the piano class at the Warsaw Conservatory – admitted to Rytel’s theory class, he quits it after six months. Instead, he enrols in the history of art course at the Warsaw University.

Summer was beautiful; in the evenings I used to go for walks in Aleje Jerozolimskie [Jerusalem Avenue] which were always full of people. I felt at home there.

1926

Palester agains tries to get into the Conservatory, this time to study clarinet. He fails this time as well.

He attends lectures by Władysław Tatarkiewicz, Władysław Witwicki and Zygmunt Batowski at the Warsaw University. Although he did not complete his studies there, the knowledge he acquired at the University became very useful later, in his programmes for the Radio Free Europe in which he tackled topics from various areas of art and culture.

1927

Karol Szymanowski becomes director of the Warsaw Conservatory. This is the beginning of radical changes in the teaching of music at this school.

1928

Palester again submits his application to the Warsaw Conservatory, this time to study conducting. He finally succeeds and is admitted to Kazimierz Sikorski’s theory class.

Palester writes music to Paul Claudel’s play Rest on the Seventh Day staged at the National Theatre. This is Palester’s first composition for the theatre. By 1946 Palester will write incidental music to 35 plays.

1929

Palester writes the three-part Sonatina for violin and cello (lost) – his first known work. The young composer’s professor, Kazimierz Sikorski, invites no less a figure than Karol Szymanowski to a performance of his pupil’s composition.

Szymanowki listened to the piece with the score in his hand; he said nothing, but at one point he said coldly, pointing to a phrase: this doesn’t sound too bad… That was all.