• Duration: 6'
• Instrumentation: 3332-4330-batt cel ar pf-archi
• Year: 1955
• Type: parts, score

This piece is based on one basic motif, which develops dynamically and rhythmically, worked out and shown in various orchestral colours. The development of the piece is based on the principle of dynamic gradation (from pp to the culmination, after which it returns step by step to the first pp). Gradual colouristic saturation accompanies the dynamic development. In the culmination the basic motif is shown in augmentation against a background of movement in the strings and woodwind. The Nocturne is characterised by focused, poetic expression. The piece was completed in 1956. It was first performed in 1957 by the Orchestra of the National Philharmonic under the direction of St. Skrowaczewski. (Program Booklet of the II Warsaw Autumn International Festival, 1958). The Orchestral Nocturne testifies to a skilled workshop: half neo-classical, half impressionist, but seen through the prism of Karol Szymanowski's work, which left an indelible mark on Perkowskis creative output. Written in 1955, the piece is devoid of folk or nationalist inspiration and bears witness to the coming shift in compositional consciousness and aesthetics. However, we find little of this in Perkowskis later works: he was too much of a supporter of Parisian clarity and neoclassical order to find something for himself in the ''mathematical'' speculative modern techniques, the ''turpism'' of electroacoustic music or aleatory freedoms. This does not change the fact that Piotr Perkowskis compositional workshop is reliable and the emotions expressed are real.