Roman Palester’s oeuvre is difficult to classify. The composer did not identify himself with any of 20th century trends and followed his own, separate path. This does not mean that he did not draw on the experiences of that period. In his youth he was briefly fascinated by folklore and had a brush with neo-classical aesthetics, just like many of his peers. Later he experimented with dodecaphony and aleatorism, though he treated both techniques very freely and quickly abandoned them. In an era of experimentation and constantly changing avant-gardes, he remained faithful to tradition, created symphonies, sonatas and quartets, and kept coming back to the works he had already finished, trying to make their form as perfect as possible.

It is not easy to study Palester’s oeuvre. Many of his works have never been published and are still awaiting their premieres. Many compositions have not been recorded and the fact that they are rarely performed makes it even more difficult for us to become better acquianted with this beautiful though by no means easy music. Zofia Helman’s extensive monograph – Roman Palester – the artist and his work (Musica Iagiellonica, 1999) – has filled the huge gap in our knowledge of Palester and his music, but it cannot replace genuine contact with the music of a composer who was officially banned for decades in the communist Poland.

Palester was part of a generation born shortly before WWI the most distinguished representatives of which were: Grażyna Bacewicz, Andrzej Panufnik and Witold Lutosławski.These artists, just like Palester, studied at the Warsaw Conservatory and grew in the shadow of Karol Szymanowski’s great personality. That is why we should not be surprised by the young Palester’s fascination with folklore. It is at its most prominent in his two youthful works: the hugely successful Dance from Osmołoda and music to the ballet Song of the Earth. Palester very quickly distanced himself from this trend. In the memoirs, written towards the end of his life, he wrote, referring to the music of Song of the Earth: It wasn’t until I heard it that I realised the stupidity and emptiness of the entire idea. It’s just that the banality of the themes and the atmosphere of cheap folkore led me unconsciously to simplicity, which was, it has to be said, in accordance with my purely musical assumption, but this assumption itself was not worth all that effort. I put the score aside with a firm conviction that it would never be played again.

The joyful aesthetics of neo-classicism too was reflected in Palester’s youthful works. The best examples are the Concertino for alto saxophone and string orchestra – still one of Palester’s most often perfomed works – and the Piano Sonatina for four hands. Both works are characterised by transparent textures, use of classical forms and cheerful mood.

However, the composer’s rich imagination drew him in a completely different direction. Palester was interested in complex textures and a departure from tonally centred harmony in favour of full application of the twelve-tone technique. This was accompanied by intensified expression modelled on the works of the Second Viennese School. Characteristic works from that period include Violin Concerto, Third String Quartet and Requiem.

Palester’s interest in the work of Schönberg and Berg led him to dodecaphony. He used this technique for the first time in his Third Symphony(Symphony for two orchestras). However, the use of the dodecaphonic technique is by no means consistent in Palester’s works. The series is treated thematically and often appears incomplete. Palester would continue to use serialism from time to time, but dodecaphony would never become his main tool for shaping the form of his compositions.

If we want to describe Palester’s works from the 1950s and the early 1960s, it seems that the best term would be expressionism. This trend culminated undoubtedly in the opera (or "stage action", as the composer described it)Death of Don Juan. In addition to serialism Palester also uses in it the Sprechgesang technique.

This was followed by a period of experiments with sonorism and aleatorism. Sensitivity to colour and original sound effects had always been characteristic of Palester’s music (e.g. harmonic glissandi in. third mvt. of the String Trio no. 1). Now, however, his interest in sonorism came to the fore, while in theVarianti for 2 pianos Palester made the first attempt at advanced aleatorism (one could think here of analogies with Serocki’s A piacere). In his subsequent compositions Palester would limit his use of aleatorism to the disruption of full synchronisation of vertical structures (similar to Lutosławski’s controlled aleatorism).

The last years of Palester’s life were marked by great syntheses and returns to earlier works which now underwent a thorough transformation. This is another reason why it is difficult to explore Palester’s complex oeuvre. Most of his works have two or even three versions which often (as it is the case with the Fourth Symphony or the Violin Concerto) differ considerably and are in fact different works.

We hope that this DVD will fill at least some of the acute gaps in our knowledge of Roman Palester’s music and will encourage both music lovers and musicians to explore this extraordinary oeuvre, thus contributing to it popularisation.