Barockissimo

Barockissimo
When I responded to the Barockissimo ensemble’s request to write this work, I was initially delighted to be approaching mandolin writing for the first time. So writing for a trio containing this instrument, surrounded by the violin and cello, seemed to work after our first meeting and discovery of the repertoire they played.
The idea was to write a work that would be as demanding as it would be accessible to the public; a kind of tribute to the Baroque period, its music and its forms.
Thus the first movement is called Ouverture à la française, with its over-pointed opening and the fugato that follows. The second, Aria, evokes snatches of memory of an aria whose tonal anchorage might link it to this period. In the last, Gigue, I use the structure of a Bach gigue to conjure up the sympathetic ghosts of themes by Lully and Handel. As a tribute to the Baroque spirit, in both senses of the word, this work is intended as a kind of party, among friends, with a smile on our lips.
Benoît Menut