Instrumental music makes up the most significant part of Lithuanian composer Arvydas Malcys’ creative output. The tendencies of absolute music fit well with expressionistic imagery and sound poetry reminiscent of the Impressionism; a feel for neoclassical forms with aleatory and sonoristic elements. Blessed with a discriminating ear, he takes special interest in timbre possibilities of different instruments in various registers of their range. His symphonic opus Message, written in 2021, is dedicated to Ludwig van Beethoven. “While composing this work, I kept thinking about Beethoven’s legendary saying “Fate is knocking on the door”, about his personal life, character, actions that were contradictory and unpredictable. The primary cell of the work is a modified rhythmic and melodic motif from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. The pulsing anxiety encoded in the percussion continues throughout the piece, disappearing briefly only in the episode of Adagio, where memories of a past life, a safe, replete and comfortable golden age of European classics, humanism and the Reformation emerge out of a mist”, says Malcys.

The premiere of the work features the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by maestro Modestas Pitrėnas.