Truth in Music

The Zodiac Trio -
heard by
KEITH BRAMICH

'... young wine, already highly palatable ...'

Zodiac Trio - Stravinsky, Bacri, Ustvolskaya, Bartók. © 2012 Blue Griffin Recording Inc

I first encountered Paris-born Nicolas Bacri in 1992 when he travelled to the Welsh Border Marches on the commissioning and first performance of his Serenata a cinque for wind quintet (which was actually a reworking of an earlier serenade) at an event called 'Open Borders' (celebrating the tenth annual Presteigne Festival), back in optimistic days when countries were queuing to join (rather than leave) the European Union. This was near the start of Bacri's career, shortly after leaving his position as head of chamber music at Radio France to concentrate on composition, and only four years or so after his residency at the Académie de France à Rome, where he encountered Giacinto Scelsi, the Italian composer featured recently on these pages by Giuseppe Pennisi. This CD's programme notes, compiled by pianist Riko Higuma, discuss Bacri's 'revisiting the past with a smile' and tongue-in-cheek work names. I'd like to think that Bacri might (like me) look back to this 1992 period with a wry smile, and also that my friend the late David Smith, whose home in nearby England was just a couple of minutes' walk from this 1992 Welsh festival, might have approved of the elegant and accessible neo-classical pastiche of Bacri's A Smiling Suite (2006-7), given its first performance on this new Blue Griffin CD...