Nicolas Bacri

Petite Musique de Nuit

Ma Petite musique de nuit was originally written at the request of Nicolas Prost for Saxiana, a collective work for alto saxophone and piano published by Éditions Billaudot. The fact that a work so modest in its aesthetic ambition is numbered with a number as prestigious as 111 is a mischievous nod to history (and to Beethoven, of course). I could have left no number and included this title, as well as the two suites for flute and piano, in the short list of my pedagogical works. I could also, as Florent Schmitt did, have "forgotten" number 111 for fear (religious?) of having to suffer a comparison, necessarily cruel, with the famous Beethovenian opus. On the contrary, I have taken the opportunity to give an additional overview (as a follow-up to my Opus 69) of the music I was writing before Opus 1 and to include in my list of "important works" pieces that humbly propose to serve as teaching material for young instrumentalists. The third movement of the Petite musique de nuit is entitled Flânerie, because it was commissioned by my friend Hervé Corre for an edition of the Festival des Flâneries musicales de Reims for Florent Héau (who made a remarkable recording of my music for clarinet) with Marcella Ruggieri at the piano. Here is a version for saxophone (or clarinet in B), violin and cello of this piece, which was first performed by musicians from the Bratislava Philharmonic Orchestra in June 2021. I have chosen to add to the title the mention of Opus 111 No. 1 and to publish two small suites for flute and piano as Opus 111 Nos. 2 and 3. Nicolas BACRI