For the first time in my career, three of my works will be performed in the same concert. "Ramayan 3392", concerto for accordion and chamber orchestra, "Rúnatal", for choir a capella, and the new commissioned work, "Flores Malum" for string orchestra and clarinet solo. The concert will be repeated in the Tsaritsyno museum in Moscow on Sunday. Interpreters are the excellent Russian Camerata, Andrey Kruzhkov, Maria Vlassova, and Evgueny Varavko.

From the program note concerning Flores Malum:

Flores Malum, Les fleurs de B-A-C-H, les fleurs de mal.

This concertino for clarinet and string orchestra is an attempt to work with multiple, but symbolic interrelated sources. First, the name B-A-C-H, has inspired countless composers through the centuries to pay homage to the old master. My concerto introduces the theme in many variations and different circumstances.

According to oral transmission of Bach's letters that has been lost since the second world war, J. S. Bach was a great lover of flowers and plants, especially roses.

Bach's British brother-in-name, Edward Bach (1886-1936), is well known as a herbalist and distiller of plan extracts, and the inventor of the famous Bach flower remedies. One of his well-known remedies is the Malus Sylvestris, the apple flower, which is used as a purification tonic.

The word "Malum" in Latin means not only apple, but also evil. Could it then be coincidence that Charles Baudelaire, in his poem Élévation from his famous the Fleurs de Mal, speak about the purification of the spirit? And is not Bach's music and example of the absolute purification, not only in effect, but also technique?

Flores Malum is a work in 5 parts, that uses the B-A-C-H theme and three of Baudelaire's poems as simultaniious sources of inspiration: Élévation, La musique and Le coucher du soleil romantique from the Fleurs de Mal.

Concerts in Tver and Moscow

The Tale of Taliesin in the Mariinsky

The Tale of Taliesin released on CD

The Tale of Taliesin in Nizhny Novgorod

Ramayan 3392 AD, Moscow, and Rubinstein’s hat

Fëanor with L'Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice

Messe I.X-VI.X in Tasmania

Recording at Abbey Road Studios

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Martin