From the early 1950s, composer Roman Palester was an émigré, and from 1952 worked for Radio Free Europe in Munich.

This led to a ban on his name and works in the communist Poland and to his more or less complete disappearance from official musical life in his home country. Palester’s rich and varied output comprises works for piano (including two sonatas), chamber and orchestra music (five symphonies, concertos, and concertinos, among others), as well as vocal-instrumental works (orchestrated songs, a Requiem, Te Deum, as well as the ‘stage action’ Death of Don Juan).

His individual musical style draws on the neoclassical movement (as heard on this CD), but explores dodecaphonic and serial techniques as well. Saxophonist Alina Mleczko, pianist Clare Hammond, flautists Agata and Łukasz Kielar-Długosz are joined on this recording by the Sinfonia Iuventus Polish Orchestra to introduce you to this composer’s missing works.