The Concerto No. 3 for violin and orchestra op. 83, and its references to older styles.
To be understood, every composer writes music using the same language while featuring his or her own personal pronunciation. This variation in notation provides contemporary musicians the ability to distinguish the unique qualities of many composers and their time periods. Over time, new ways of saying the same ideas were introduced to the musical world that would usually take about a century to evolve and then stabilize. In present times, we find composers emerging at a rapid pace as they generate fresh ideas for new extended techniques that push performers and their instruments to new limits. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Nicolas Bacri’s works beautifully showcase the lyrical melodies that have been the tradition of violin expression for centuries. According to Bacri, his music is a form of communication and communion, always giving priority to the balance between his instinct as a composer and the discipline he has developed by working at the piano. When composing his third violin concerto dedicated to Mirjam Tschoop, Bacri challenged himself to employ non-traditional forms. His concerto is full of references to older styles like minuets and fugues mixed with 20th-century style. In combining these two styles, Bacri contributes to the evolution of the concerto by constructing a piece that is both polyphonic and concerto-like in which the soloist can still shine.
LISTEN: Nicolas Bacri – Concerto No.3 – 2nd movement
