Marko Nikodijevic presents himself on this portrait with three large orchestral works interpreted by the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB) and the hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt. The pieces look back to the past in different ways: sometimes they tie up with musical or cultural traditions, sometimes with personal memories.

Like most of the composer’s works ABSOLUTIO unfolds from a simple but strict formal principle, in this case a three-note chord. Later, a spiral-like, whirling construction of ever-increasing gravitational pull arises, with the remote outlines of a ‘sonata form’.

abgesang, in turn, has very personal references to the composer’s past. The work sets to music a symmetrically constructed poem by his former piano teacher Mátyás Molcer, which describes an autumnal cemetery landscape. It was written in 1995 when the composer’s homeland, the former Yugoslavia, was in civil war.

In da ispravitsja / gebetsraum mit nachtwache the composer goes back even further in his memories and deals with the cultural heritage of his homeland, with the music and liturgy of the Serbian Orthodox church. Using his characteristic, electronically inspired means such as reverberation, resonance and echo, he creates a dark, church-like acoustic space in this work.