This suite, inspired by grotesque-themed artwork by William Blake, Francisco de Goya, Salvador Dalí and Ilya Repin, was originally written for solo piano in 2015. Although the symphonic potential of the music was evident from the beginning, the composer felt at that time that he was not ready to orchestrate it. In 2023, the suite was thoroughly revised and arranged for a symphonic orchestra.

“Hunt,” based on Blake’s The Ghost of a Flea, portrays a muscular, anthropomorphic flea using its jutting tongue to gorge on a bowl of blood. This first movement is characterised by jagged and frenetic rhythms, inspired by Bulgarian music, that depict the flea catching its prey. The piece culminates in a triumphant climax where the beast savours the hunt.

“Irony,” based on Goya’s May the Student Know More?, depicts an anthopomorphic donkey teaching the alphabet to young foals, satirising the perennial problems of the education system. This movement opens in an ironic and carefree mood, full of light-hearted surprises. The central episode provides a stern contrast, with a mood reminiscent of the first movement, although humour soon prevails..

“Dream,” based on Dalí’s The Persistence of Memory, evokes a surreal landscape with several melting clocks. This slow and enigmatic movement offers moments of apparent calm, although the jagged nature of the rhythms lends it a certain instability. The central episode, based on the open-string guitar chord and Latin-American inflections is as absurd and unexplainable as the painting’s subject matter.

“Bacchanale,” based on the second version of Repin’s Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, portrays an unhinged gathering of fierce Ukranian warriours writing a mocking reply to the Turkish Sultan’s ultimatum. The movement begins with a boisterous first theme, full of acerbic irony, followed by a cold and robotic second theme that is motivically derived from the first. The central development climaxes in a fugue, where the potential of all the motifs is pushed to the limit. After an abbreviated recapitulation, the final coda propels the movement, and the entire suite, to a frenzied conclusion.