Appreciating music is part of the legacy of the cultivated but composing it is given to only a few. Artistic director KARL FIORINI talks to Marie Benoît about a festival he started and the music he composes

By now you would have all heard of the forthcoming International String Orchestra Festival. It came about after its artistic director Karl Fiorini was auditioning at the Royal College of Music for the Doctoral programme and was staying over at a friend, conductor Bjørn Bantock. Karl expressed his fear that if he did not pass the audition he would have to return to Malta and thus be cut off from the music world. It was upon Bjørn’s suggestion to start something together such as a string festival, that this festival came about. The first festival took place in April 2007.

What does it mean to you to be a musician?

It means being sensitive to other people and their experiences. Without that it is not possible to create. This sensitivity comes with time and maturity. To be a musician, especially in the field of creation, one needs to be open to different opinions and to challenge oneself all the time. Another important aspect is to have a unique ‘voice’ and not jump on the latest band wagon.

How many pieces of music have you composed so far which have been played in public?

Most of my works have been performed in public. There are a few such as Un bout de ciel au loin for piano and orchestra, Paganini Variations for piano and orchestra and Pater Noster for mixed choir which haven’t yet been performed. The rest which rounds up twenty or so pieces have been performed, recorded or are scheduled to be performed imminently.

Would you ever consider doing commercial projects – writing music for advertising for example – or move into film music or are you ‘Strictly Classical’?

I always jump at new projects but they have to be interesting and therefore worth it. I have written film music, or music based on other more commercial ideas. I also did some pop music which is rather fun. I think a composer needs to be an all rounder. At the end of the day one has to pay the rent and any good opportunity to express one’s creatively must be taken.

Once you have finished your doctorate at the Royal College of Music, London are you likely to return to Malta permanently?

I do not have a clue about this. I am the kind of person ‘fejn johodni r-rih’. I tend to swim with the tide. Currently I am in Lyon, France, but it is more than likely that I shall be moving to Paris.

I gather it is hard to earn respect in the difficult field of contemporary classical composing. Would you comment?

I believe respect is something which one earns with time. We always need to prove ourselves no matter what sphere of work we are in. In music, it is true, it is quite difficult because one has to keep in mind what music has been written and by whom. Once, on my way to a competition in the States (which I co-won), when I touched American soil the customs guy asked me what I was doing in the US. I told him that I was a composer. He told me with his nasal Amercian accent: ‘So, you’re another Beethoven?’ to which I replied: ‘Oh no sir, I am only a Fiorini”.

Do you suddenly get an individual impulse to create something? To put down notes on paper which are in your head, even in the middle of the night, or do you plan a composition?

When I get an idea which I think is good I try to forget it. If it is still in my head after a few weeks it means that this idea is a good one and it has the potential to develop. Actually this would have already started to happen. The best time for me to compose is usually in the morning. When I lived in London I cultivated the good habit to wake up at 5am and work till about nineish.

Do you say to yourself ‘This week I am going to start working on a sonata’?

Nowadays I tend to compose what is asked of me. Last week I was asked to write a work for Violin and Piano for the Schumann Year next season to be performed at the Gulbenkian Hall in Portugal. Before actually starting to compose I have started doing some research on Schumann and the codes in his music as the programme will also include works of this composer and his wife Clara. In the next couple of months for example I seriously need to sit down and concentrate on a flute concerto which has already been scheduled for a performance in Portugal and Turkey this December.

Do you believe in the staying power of the orchestra or will it be replaced by something else eventually?

I certainly hope not! The orchestra is my favourite medium, especially the chamber formation of 20 to 30 musicians. It gives a lot of flexibility and especially possibilities which would be very difficult to obtain with a symphonic orchestra.

I find that the music I love is the music I grew up on. Is it the same for you?

Once an older cousin sent me a song called Baby Hands up. He asked me what I felt and I told him that I immediately wanted to dance and it made me happy. He told me that this particular song came out when I was about one and a half years old and he remembered me jumping and clapping to it. So, I think what you say that the music you love is the one you grew up with might be true. But I also think that this can also be contrary. My mother used to tell me that when I was young I had listened to a lot of Strauss waltzes but when I grew I up I couldn’t stand them. On the other hand I never grew up with Mahler but when I discovered him, late at the age of 19, it was like I had always known his music.

When you are not composing, writing your thesis, doing your research and so on what do you like doing best in London?

Nowadays I only go to London to meet my tutor and to see my friends. Usually when I am not composing I am working on other stuff such as the International String Orchestra Festival, which is happening for the third time in the next few days.

What is the subject of your thesis?

It is about my music. It deals with the aspect of how I use numbers to generate tones, intervals, form and other boring compositional stuff, but which I believe is essential in the function and creation of a work.

Karl need no longer fear that he would get stuck in Malta. The world is now his oyster.

Details of the Festival…

More information about the festival is available on www.isofestival.com. It will be held at the Manoel Theatre between 13 and 17 April. Tickets for the evening performances are sold at e12, e15, e20 and e35 or block ticket e30, e50 or e75 and may be booked at the Manoel theatre box office on 2124 6389 or online on www.teatrumanoel.com.mt. Lunchtime recitals are open to the public free of charge.