His music can be divided into two periods. Until 1958 it could be called neo-classical and neo-baroque. He composed rather monumental music, like his third and fourth symphony, as well as the concerto grosso.
From 1959 he devoted himself to write music that tends to be dodecaphonic and serial, while reducing the size of the orchestra to perform this music. Examples of this period are his sonnets for orchestra, improvisations for mixed choir and chamber orchestra, poems forpiano and chamber orchestra and preludes for chamber orchestra.
Biography
He studied at the conservatoire in Warsaw with Roman Statkowski and Karol Szymanowski as teachers for composition and Mieczyslaw Surzynski for organ.
From 1929 he was professor of composition and organ at the Katowice conservatoire, and at the state higher Scoll of Music also at Katowice. One of his students was Henryk Gorecki.
Information comes from an Olympia OCD300 CD, adapted fom a text by Robert Wendell.
Rating: - Polish spirit and excellence
Szabelski is unfortunately now forgotten but he has created school of polish contemporary music. He was one of the stars of polish music scene in 60s and 70s. In age of 70 he changed his habbits and joined avangarde. Szabelski's pieces are full of "geist" of Starvinsky and rich in "fear" of Webern. This album contains his most popular works.
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