'Fleurs du mal' ostensibly fits into the traditional pattern of the three-movement piano sonata and conforms to rudimentary sonata form. Yet the formal restrictions - including the predominance of the single motif established by the insistence of the minor third - generate a rage for freedom in sound: here Baudelaire is interpreted through his 'Fleurs du mal' as the master of delirium and the visionary.

Schott Music