16 MODERN TIMES It was then that the time came to face the microphone and imagine a first recording. ‘Ravel's trio was an obvious choice, but we gave a lot of thought to the works that would complete the programme. It was important for us to show our curiosity by getting off the beaten track and breaking away from the traditional pairings with Fauré or Debussy’, confides Kojiro. All the more so as this music carries within it multiple references that lend themselves to the blending of aesthetics. The French master's admiration for the Russian romantics thus finds an echo in the first trio of Anton Arensky (1861-1906), whose style lies at the crossroads of those of Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) and Rachmaninov (1873-1943). As for the modernist overtones of Ravelian language, perceptible in particular in the trio's finale, they are contrasted here with a recent creation by Miroslav Srnka (né.1975), Emojis, Likes and Ringtones, commissioned by Munich's ARD in 2018, commissioned by the ARD Music Competition 2018 financed by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation which the musicians discovered when they took part in the competition five years later. Choices which, according to Bo-Geun, were fairly instinctive: ‘Arensky's work appealed to us from the outset because of its fiery spirit fitted in perfectly with our state of mind as a young trio. Srnka's piece, which came into our lives while we were competing in Munich, enabled us to begin a fruitful collaboration with one of the most brilliant composers of the moment.’
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