Program Notes:

The composition is inspired by the music of polish composers Krzysztof Penderecki and Witold Lutosławski, and by the fine art of the polish surrealist painter Zdzisław Beksiński. The basic motives on this piece are derived from Penderecki's "St. Luke Passion (1966)". The two specific Beksiński's paintings that inspired me are untitled (as the majority of his paintings).The first one depicts a man holding a torch and walking in a lonely path to the darkness. He walks between two huge walls which are vast figures of ghosts (with faces of skulls). The second one depicts a dark brown castle in a gloomy and foggy night with a hazy light slightly illuminating inside the castle. In my dystopian dreams, the darkness feels like an unknown and mysterious void, like a fall into a black hole. At the beginning, my eyes cannot adjust to the darkness and I see nothing but an absolute black. However, as I go deeper in the abyss, my eyesight slightly adjusts and starts viewing these undefinable scary elements, which gradually begin to exert a twisted charm on me. There is always a distant light in the end -like a last glimpse of hope- but it remains forever distant.

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