« SOLOMON'S RING » JEAN-LOUIS FLORENTZ
organ concert

From the origins of religious texts in a tribute to Nelson Mandela

Jean-Louis Florentz is the musician of the otherwhere. Whether that otherwhere is in Africa, full of legends and symbols, or in biblical stories and oriental tales, the call of the faraway – be it a geographical or a metaphysical one – always has a marked presence in both this composer's work and his life.
Solomon's Ring, an orchestral piece transcribed for organ by Henri-Franck Beaupérin, borrows from various literary sources : the Testament of Solomon (a 2nd-century apocryphal text), commentaries from the Quran, three tales from One Thousand and One Nights, texts from the Old Testament, and also from Long Walk to Freedom, the autobiography of Nelson Mandela, to whom the score is dedicated.