Dutilleux's Dark Dominion

[Cato]

Courtesy of YouTube!

https://www.youtube.com/v/4vUnM9-GQbo

[vers la flamme]

I am getting into the music of Henri Dutilleux a bit lately. He has written some great music; I really like the violin concerto, "L'arbre des songes", as well as the first symphony, and Timbres, espace, mouvement "La nuit étoilée". He has a really unique orchestral sound among French composers. The only composer I can think of who sounds remotely similar is Lutoslawski. Indeed, I can't help but wonder if Dutilleux and Lutoslawski knew of each other.

I have a couple discs in the Chandos series with Yan Pascal Tortelier and the BBC Philharmonic, I plan on collecting more.

Anyone listening to Dutilleux lately?

[vandermolen]

I am getting into the music of Henri Dutilleux a bit lately. He has written some great music; I really like the violin concerto, "L'arbre des songes", as well as the first symphony, and Timbres, espace, mouvement "La nuit étoilée". He has a really unique orchestral sound among French composers. The only composer I can think of who sounds remotely similar is Lutoslawski. Indeed, I can't help but wonder if Dutilleux and Lutoslawski knew of each other.

I have a couple discs in the Chandos series with Yan Pascal Tortelier and the BBC Philharmonic, I plan on collecting more.

Anyone listening to Dutilleux lately?

Yes, especially symphonies 1 and 2, Métaboles and the fine Cello Concerto.

[vers la flamme]

Yes, especially symphonies 1 and 2, Métaboles and the fine Cello Concerto.

I have a CD with the two symphonies, and I just ordered one with the cello concerto (along with Lutoslawski's cello concerto) played by Mstislav Rostropovich. Excited to hear that one.

[Mirror Image]

I have a CD with the two symphonies, and I just ordered one with the cello concerto (along with Lutoslawski's cello concerto) played by Mstislav Rostropovich. Excited to hear that one.

Dutilleux's Cello Concerto, "Tout un monde lointain..." should be required listening for anyone interested in late 20th Century, IMHO. The same could be said of Lutoslawski's.

[vers la flamme]

Dutilleux's Cello Concerto, "Tout un monde lointain..." should be required listening for anyone interested in late 20th Century, IMHO. The same could be said of Lutoslawski's.

I love the Luto concerto, the recording I am familiar with features Heinrich Schiff. Excited to hear Slava play it. Wasn't it written for him? I know that they say Dutilleux's concerto is among his best works.

[Mirror Image]

I love the Luto concerto, the recording I am familiar with features Heinrich Schiff. Excited to hear Slava play it. Wasn't it written for him? I know that they say Dutilleux's concerto is among his best works.

Yeah, both of these cello concerti were written for Rostropovich. You'll find much enjoyment here.

[brewski]

Just released today, a video called THUS, THE NIGHT, one of the final projects from the departing Spektral Quartet ( ), based on Ainsi la nuit (1976). The director is Evan Chapman, with visual art by Antonia Contro, and it's quite something. I daresay that Dutilleux would be pleased.

-Bruce

[calyptorhynchus]

Just having a Dutilleux listening fling atm. I  find him the most mysterious of composers: in most of his works the music proceeds in a leisurely fashion. It's very beguiling and very beautiful, and then suddenly, usually about 2/3 of the way through a passage appears which somehow seems to tie everything you've been hearing together, and then the piece ends perfectly. I'm wondering if the fact that this tying-together passage occurs 2/3 of the way through has anything to do with golden ratios or anything like that?

[pjme]

here's another Dutilleux lover. My brother tried  to play the piano sonata...and I bought the Charles Munch/Erato/Metaboles LP.
I don't know if Dutilleux used the "nombre d'or" - the golden ratio. But, indeed the works I know have a "formal" quality that "ties everything together" (cfr. Bartok, Frank Martin...).
Métaboles is such a wonderful work!

It is nice to see this live performance - excellent slow movements, subtle shadings.. Munch is sharper, has more bite , especially in the Flamboyant.

[brewski]

here's another Dutilleux lover. My brother tried  to play the piano sonata...and I bought the Charles Munch/Erato/Metaboles LP.
I don't know if Dutilleux used the "nombre d'or" - the golden ratio. But, indeed the works I know have a "formal" quality that "ties everything together" (cfr. Bartok, Frank Martin...).
Métaboles is such a wonderful work!

Thank you. I watched that performance live! And Métaboles was the first Dutilleux work I ever heard, decades ago on the radio. It is marvelous.

[Iota]

here's another Dutilleux lover. My brother tried  to play the piano sonata...and I bought the Charles Munch/Erato/Metaboles LP.
I don't know if Dutilleux used the "nombre d'or" - the golden ratio. But, indeed the works I know have a "formal" quality that "ties everything together" (cfr. Bartok, Frank Martin...).
Métaboles is such a wonderful work!

It is nice to see this live performance - excellent slow movements, subtle shadings.. Munch is sharper, has more bite , especially in the Flamboyant.

I'm vaguely familiar with a number of Dutilleux works, but I think Métaboles may have passed me by. And even if I have heard it, I certainly didn't engage with it the way I did listening to that video just now, thanks for posting, an excellent, absorbing piece.
Fwiw, I was very struck by the opening thirty seconds which could have almost been a fragment of a lost, late piece by Stravinsky it seemed to me. Not that it felt plagiaristic at all. Anyway, a fine discovery that's encouraged me to pay a revisit to Dutilleux's 'Dark Dominion'.

[San Antone]

Just released today, a video called THUS, THE NIGHT, one of the final projects from the departing Spektral Quartet ( ), based on Ainsi la nuit (1976). The director is Evan Chapman, with visual art by Antonia Contro, and it's quite something. I daresay that Dutilleux would be pleased.

Sad to hear of the demise of the Spektral Quartet.  They were a wonderful group that released a unique repertory, some traditional but often something out of the ordinary, like this one:

Fanm d'Ayiti (Women of Haiti) is an evening-length work for voice, flute, string quartet and electronics developed by composer/performer Nathalie Joachim. Commissioned by St. Paul Chamber Orchestra's Liquid Music Series, Fanm d'Ayiti is a celebration of some of Haiti's most iconic yet under recognized female artists, as well as an exploration of Joachim's Haitian heritage.

The project features original songs incorporating the recorded voices of Joachim's grandmother and the girls choir of her family's home farming village of Dantan; new arrangements of songs by some of the greatest known female voices in Haitian history; and recorded interviews with these artists about their lives fighting for social justice and uplifting the people of Haiti.

[Mandryka]

Everyone seems to rave about Metaboles but me, I'm getting more pleasure from Mystère de l'instant.