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CHAN 9853 BOOK COVER.qxd 30/8/07 5:31 pm Page 1 CHAN 9853(4) CHANDOS Yan Pascal Tortelier CHAN 9853 BOOK.qxd 30/8/07 5:33 pm Page 2 Henri Dutilleux (b. 1916) COMPACT DISC ONE AKG Symphony No. 1 30:51 1 I Passacaille: Andante 7:31 2 II Scherzo: Molto vivace 5:45 3 III Intermezzo: Lento 6:31 4 IV Finale, con variazioni: Largamente – Allegro – Scherzo – Lento 10:58 Symphony No. 2 ‘Le Double’ 28:49 5 I Animato, ma misterioso 7:43 6 II Andantino sostenuto 9:32 7 III Allegro fuocoso – Calmato 11:31 TT 59:47 Symphony No. 2: Chamber Orchestra personnel Violin I Andrew Orton Bassoon David Chatwin Violin II Robert Chasey Trumpet Patrick Addinall Henri Dutilleux Viola Janet Fisher Trombone Paul Reynolds Cello Peter Dixon Timpani Raymond Lomax Oboe Marios Argiros Harpsichord John Wilson Clarinet Paul Dintinger Celesta Bernard Robertson 3 CHAN 9853 BOOK.qxd 30/8/07 5:33 pm Page 4 COMPACT DISC TWO Jehan Alain (1911–1940) orch. Dutilleux 13 †‡ L’Arbre des songes* 25:14 Prière pour nous autres charnels 5:35 Concerto for Violin and Orchestra Prayer for us mortals Tree of dreams Très librement récité – Animato – Plus librement – 1 I Librement – 5:08 Sans lenteur 2 Interlude – 2:40 TT 58:08 3 II Vif – 2:00 Martyn Hill tenor‡ 4 Interlude – 1:59 Neal Davies baritone† 5 III Lent – 6:31 Olivier Charlier violin* 6 Interlude – 1:21 7 IV Large et animé 5:35 COMPACT DISC THREE Two Sonnets by Jean Cassou† 7:03 Métaboles 16:37 8 J’ai rêvé que je vous portais entre mes bras 4:48 1 I Incantatoire – 3:34 I dreamt that I carried you in my arms 2 II Linéaire – 3:01 Extrêmement calme 3 III Obsessionnel – 3:03 4 IV Torpide – 2:56 9 Il n’y avait que des troncs déchirés 2:11 5 V Flamboyant 4:03 There was nothing but torn trunks Véhément et agité Tout un monde lointain* 27:56 Concerto for Cello and Orchestra Timbres, espace, mouvement avec interlude 19:56 A whole world faraway 10 I( = 72 environ) 8:28 6 I Enigme – 6:38 11 Interlude – 3:44 7 II Regard – 7:14 12 II ( = 56 environ) 7:38 8 III Houles – 4:27 9 IV Miroirs – 5:07 10 V Hymne 4:30 4 5 CHAN 9853 BOOK.qxd 30/8/07 5:33 pm Page 6 Mystère de l’instant (grande formation) 15:30 COMPACT DISC FOUR Mystery of the moment The Shadows of Time (1995–7) 11 I Appels – 2:08 1 I Les Heures – 3:08 12 II Echos – 1:28 Hours 13 III Prismes – 1:21 2 II Ariel maléfique – 2:20 14 IV Espaces lointains – 1:49 Evil Ariel 15 V Litanies – 1:53 3 III Mémoire des ombres – 5:29 16 VI Choral – 0:56 Memory of Shadows 17 VII Rumeurs – 0:57 4 Interlude – 2:42 18 VIII Soliloques – 1:08 5 IV Vagues de lumière – 3:20 19 IX Métamorphoses (sur le nom Sacher) – 2:21 Waves of Light 20 X Embrasement 1:29 6 V Dominante bleue? 4:47 Edward Cervenka cimbalom Blue dominant? TT 60:28 Edward Burrowes treble TT 21:46 Boris Pergamenschikow cello* BBC Philharmonic Yan Pascal Tortelier 6 7 CHAN 9853 BOOK.qxd 30/8/07 5:33 pm Page 8 Dutilleux’s First Symphony, his earliest power to enchant’, in the magical sense. The Henri Dutilleux: Complete Orchestral Works purely orchestral work, was completed in Finale with variations begins flamboyantly (with 1951. Already, in the Intermezzo, there are the the large percussion section at its most first signs of a process which was to become assertive) before generally following the Henri Dutilleux was born in Angers in 1916. 1948 is, however, a different matter altogether, central to his work. Rather than unequivocally opposite course to the first movement’s long When he was only three his parents moved to a much more substantial and ambitious work stating a theme at the beginning of a crescendo, the work ending in a mood of grave Douai, where he received his education. and the one in which, as he himself movement, Dutilleux has favoured the principle serenity. Dutilleux’s orchestration again reveals Although he does not claim to have been acknowledges, Dutilleux first found his own of progressive growth, his musical material extraordinary flair; that he had found his true especially precocious, he was already voice. appearing more subtly through gradual métier is borne out by the high proportion of composing at the age of thirteen. Composition While working for French Radio the evolution. The constant renewal of musical orchestral works which he has since composed. studies with Henri Büsser followed at the Paris composer was only able to devote about three ideas gives his mature works a fluid, The Second Symphony ‘Le Double’ of Conservatoire, and his success in winning hours a day to his own music, a constraint improvisatory character. Related to this is his 1959 represents an even greater advance than several prizes culminated in the award of the which was compounded by his habitually ‘avoidance of prefabricated formal scaffolding’ its predecessor. Commissioned by the Prix de Rome in 1938. The period spent in fastidious approach to composition. His extreme which he has referred to, while his expressed Koussevitzky Foundation for the Boston Rome which this normally entails was soon self-criticism has resulted in a relatively small ‘predilection for the spirit of variation’ is even Symphony Orchestra’s seventy-fifth interrupted, however, by the outbreak of war. catalogue of works, and this sparsity has more apparent in the first and last movements anniversary, the work is scored for an Dutilleux’s eventual demobilisation in 1940 led undoubtedly contributed to the neglect from of this symphony. The use of a passacaglia is ensemble of twelve players in addition to a to a diversification of his talents, including which Dutilleux’s music suffers. Another factor rare in a symphonic first movement. There are full orchestra. A modern concerto grosso was work as a teacher of harmony, as chorus- which may help to account for this neglect is thirty-five repetitions of a four-bar ground bass definitely not Dutilleux’s intention. Rather, the master at the Paris Opéra and as an arranger Dutilleux’s consistent avoidance of any first heard on the double-basses. Throughout, interplay of chamber group (which includes of night-club music. An engagement which was particularly classifiable or forward-looking the composer’s mastery of orchestral colour is harpsichord, celesta and timpani) and to prove much more lengthy had begun in musical system. In this he contrasts with a strikingly evident. The Scherzo, which follows orchestra fluctuates in character between 1943 as he joined the staff of French Radio, composer like Pierre Boulez, who has without a break, Dutilleux now regards as ‘all confrontation, combination, superimposition becoming head of musical illustrations in 1945 maintained his allegiance to the more virtuosity and display’. Though he has, in the and mirror image. Dutilleux rejects the idea of and later head of musical commissions, a progressive serial technique. Musical history ensuing forty years, moved away from these music with a strict programme or ‘message’, position he was to hold until 1963. books (and most critics!) tend to dwell on qualities, favouring instead an imaginative and the symphony’s title is meant only as a His earliest published works also date from figures of this type – those who are more world of poetry and fantasy, this Scherzo general concept: ‘Two characters in one, one the 1940s. These include small-scale radical, boldly idiosyncratic or pioneering. bristles with energy and originality and is far being a reflected image of the other’. The instrumental works and songs, and while none Dutilleux, however, has steadfastly followed his from being mere empty display. A mood of poetic inspiration which lies behind Le Double of them may be described as truly own instinct, refining his own musical language sustained and strangely exotic lyricism may well be more revealing than any amount representative of their composer they are all and producing works of rare beauty and pervades the Intermezzo, in which Dutilleux of technical discussion. A clue to the nature of attractive and well crafted. The Piano Sonata of imagination. shows his confidence in what he calls ‘music’s the work was suggested by a lady who told 8 9 CHAN 9853 BOOK.qxd 30/8/07 5:33 pm Page 10 Dutilleux that hearing his symphony made her and Timbres, espace, mouvement (both contrasting interludes which are closely As the piece develops, their importance think of Gauguin’s picture ‘Where do we come orchestral), Tout un monde lointain (cello and integrated within the overall plan of the work becomes more obvious until they finally from? What are we? Where are we going?’. orchestra), L’Arbre des songes (violin and – ‘the first pointillistic, the second almost occupy a prominent position towards the end After some reflection Dutilleux realised that orchestra), Ainsi la nuit (string quartet), and entirely monodic, the third virtually static’, as of the work. Although the composer she had genuinely understood his music. Mystère de l’instant (strings, percussion and the composer describes them. The third of considered alternative titles for this work, the The Cello Concerto which Dutilleux cimbalom). Unlike many of his contemporaries these interludes includes a section which is image of a tree was always central. As he completed in 1969 is entitled Tout un monde Dutilleux has not adhered rigidly to any extraordinary in two ways: it is not only explains, ‘the formation of a tree always lointain (A whole world faraway), and his classifiable musical system but has steadfastly aleatoric (a device which Dutilleux had never fascinated me’; in continuing, ‘trees have a preoccupation with such ‘distant worlds’ is followed his own instinct, constantly refining previously adopted) but is also highly original lyricism whose ramifications keep multiplying also reflected in many of his other works.