The first ECM release dedicated exclusively to music by the doyen among French contemporary composers (born 1916). “De l’ombre et de silence” offers a comprehensive overview of Dutilleux’s highly original and energetic work for one and two pianos (“Figures de Resonances”). American pianist Robert Levin, not least known as a long-standing musical partner to violist Kim Kashkashian, a noted theorist and professor of humanities at Harvard, approaches the repertoire with great sonic subtlety and utmost technical brilliance. Levin met the composer during his season as Director in Residence at Nadia Boulanger’s Conservatoire Américain at Fontainebleau in 1979 and has since been his close friend. In his liner notes to the present recording Levin writes: “Dutilleux has always kept a discreet profile, composing with painstaking perfectionism, subjecting his works to relentless revision before, and sometimes after, they have been presented to the public”. The programme opens with Dutilleux’s path-breaking piano sonata of 1946–48, a three-movement work that is marked by a personal synthesis of French Impressionism and the clear-cut rhythmic contours characteristic of Soviet music of the same period. The shorter pieces – radiant, playful and highly sophiticated music condensed to its very essence – “document Duteilleux’s trajectory from extended tonality to a sound world totally of his own invention, in which harmonies of dazzling iridescence inflect brilliant rhythmic and melodic gestures” (Robert Levin).
Henri Dutilleux: D'ombre et de silence
Robert Levin
- 1Petit air à dormir debout
01:33 - Sonate
- 2I. Allegro con moto07:40
- 3II. Lied06:07
- 4III. Choral et variations10:35
- Au gré des ondes
- 5I. Prélude en berceuse03:36
- 6III. Improvisation01:31
- 7Blackbird (1950)
01:31 - 8Tous les chemins … mènent à Rome (1961)
01:32 - 9Résonances (1965)
02:10 - Figures de résonances (1970/76)
- 10I01:42
- 11II01:46
- 12III02:33
- 13IV02:26
- 14Mini-prélude en éventail (1987)
00:42 - Préludes
- 15I. D'ombre et de silence (1973)03:42
- 16II. Sur un même accord (1977)03:37
- 17III. Le jeu des contraires (1988)07:12
- 18Bergerie (1946)
01:06 - Au gré des ondes
- 19I. Prélude en berceuse03:36
- 20II. Claquettes01:08
- 21III. Improvisation01:32
- 22IV. Mouvement perpetuel01:54
- 23V. Hommage à Bach03:24
- 24VI. Étude01:24
BBC Music Magazine, Instrumental Choice
Fono Forum, Empfehlung des Monats
Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, Empfehlung
Classica, Choc du mois
There’s no escaping the fact that Henri Dutilleux’s only major piano composition, the Sonata, is a relatively early work. Yet for all its apparent conservatism … there is nothing remotely timid or precious about it. … Robert Levin’s performance is all the more impressive for the unbridled energy and clarity with which it puts the music’s distinctive argumentative character across. … Robert Levin is in commanding form throughout and the disc is a worthy memorial to its dedicatee, the composer’s late wife and first pianistic interpreter, Geneviève Joy.
Arnold Whittall, Gramophone
Robert Levin gives a powerful rendering of what the composer regards as his Op. 1… Levin fully understands the whole work’s structure and his fingers do all that could be asked of them. He is alive, too, to the poetry of the atmospheric pieces and, with Ya-Fei Chuang, gives gripping performances of the four Figures de resonances. I’m glad he has persuaded Dutilleux to let him include ‘Au gré des ondes’, six pieces from 1946… They are utterly delightful, and the ‘Hommage à Bach’ the most convincing pastiche of JSB I’ve heard.
Roger Nichols, BBC Music Magazine
The performances are wonderful. The later works are marvels of sheer sound, sometimes stark and bell-like, sometimes shimmering. But it was the more varied and human world of the early works that really caught my attention.
Ivan Hewett, Daily Telegraph
Invité au conservatoire américain de Fontainebleau in 1979, le pianiste new-yorkais Robert Levin y rencontra Henri Dutilleux, restant fidèle, depuis, à son œuvre pour clavier. D’une saine vigueur, d’une respiration large, d’un respect très scrupuleux, et presque trop sage, son interprétation prouve combien, jusque dans les pièces de circonstance, le temps n’a pas prise sur la musique invulnérable d’Henri Dutilleux.
Gilles Macassar, Télérama
Vollends faszinierend dann Levins Interpretationen des „reifen“ Dutilleux… Die große Herausforderung bei diesen Stücken ist, auch noch das kleinste Molekül der stets ungewöhnlichen, aber immer in sich stimmigen Struktur zu erfassen und nichtsdestoweniger die Musik wie aus dem Augenblick heraus improvisiert erklingen zu lassen – eine Herausforderung, der sich Levin stellt und dabei auf ganzer Linie gewinnt. … Levins Interpretationen dürften fortan Referenzwert für sich beanspruchen.
Thomas Schulz, Neue Zeitschrift für Musik
Der amerikanische Pianist Robert Levin, der historische wie moderne Tasteninstrumente brillant beherrscht, hat … eine repräsentative CD mit dem Klavierschaffen des französischen Komponisten vorgelegt. Sie unterstreicht einmal mehr, wie eindrucksvoll Dutilleux die reiche klangliche Farbpalette seiner Orchesterstücke auch auf dem Klavier zum Blühen bringen kann.
Meret Forster, BR Klassik
Die denkbar vielfältige, stimmungsvolle Klaviermusik erfährt eine Darstellung, wie sie besser kaum vorzustellen wäre; sie ist artikuliert, durchgestaltet, ungemein klangvoll, schlechterdings gekonnt und, was besonders für sie einnimmt, durch und durch musikalisch. Levin entführt in eine fantastische Klangwelt, in der eine jede Phrasierung, ein jeder Anschlag, eine jede dynamische Nuancierung ihren genauen Sinn besitzt. Dabei bleibt das Spiel selbst noch in den virtuos-vertracktesten, ja wildesten Passagen beherrscht, souverän und elegant mit einer Spur von kühler Klarheit.
Giselher Schubert, Fono Forum
Levins Sicht besticht durch größtmögliche Klarheit und Transparenz, jede noch so kleine klangliche Geste wird in ihrer Struktur durchhörbar: Dutilleux wird gewissermaßen historisch informiert gestaltet und artikuliert, fast schon wie ein Mozart. Das tut der Musik, die auch vielfältige Diskurse mit dem Erbe führt, sehr gut. Levin seziert den klang: differenziert und zugleich sinnlich. Das gelingt ihm auch dank einer bravourösen Anschlagstechnik; sorgsam und bewusst setzt er das Pedal ein.
Neue Zürcher Zeitung
In ihrer Originalität stehen die recht unterschiedlichen Stücke doch deutlich für sich. Der amerikanische Pianist Robert Levin ist den nicht geringen technischen Anforderungen dieser Musik souverän gewachsen, er spielt Dutilleux’ Stücke suggestiv, so sublim wie herzhaft: moderne Klaviermusik, ohne verstörende Extreme, dennoch in manch komplexen Resonanzstrukturen alles andere als nur gefällig. Und mit Ya-Fei Chang hat er, bei den „Figures de résonances“ für zwei Klaviere, einen würdigen Kopiloten.
Gerhard R. Koch, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
The first ECM release dedicated exclusively to music by the doyen among contemporary French composers offers a comprehensive overview of Dutilleux's highly original and energetic work for one and two pianos ("Figures de résonances"). Setting off with Dutilleux’s official “opus 1”, the Piano Sonata of 1946–48, the album documents the composer’s “trajectory from extended tonality to a sound world totally of his own invention, in which harmonies of dazzling iridescence reflect brilliant rhythmic and melodic gestures” (Robert Levin).
The American pianist (born in 1947), an internationally recognised expert on classical period practise and not least known as a long-standing musical partner to violist Kim Kashkashian, has long been an ardent pioneer in the field of contemporary music. He regularly gives premieres of new works by composers such as John Harbison or Stanley Walden. Levin first met Dutilleux during his summer season as Director in Residence at Nadia Boulanger's Conservatoire Américain at Fontainebleau in 1979 and has been his close friend ever since. Both the selection and the order of pieces and all questions concerning the musical text and its corrections were discussed between composer and performer in great detail. When he received the final mix, Dutilleux told Robert Levin he couldn’t imagine a better rendering of this music.
Levin had planned to include the sonata already in the programme for his debut in New York in 1987. “However, Dutilleux counselled me not to play the piece which he didn’t consider to be representative for his œuvre after almost forty years. This is all the more understandable as Dutilleux’s artistic development in the course of the years is no less astounding than Strawinsky’s or even Picasso’s. Back in the eighties, Dutilleux intended to finish a couple of preludes which he wanted me to perform, but as he usually works so meticulously slowly and with such precision, it took him another year to complete the four pieces.”
The fact that Dutilleux wrote comparatively little piano music after his early years might be explained with his early international success and the constant demand for his works from conductors such as Charles Münch or George Szell and from soloists such as Mstislav Rostropovich, Isaac Stern and Anne-Sophie Mutter. “The première of Dutilleux’s violin concerto ‘L’arbre des songes’ was scheduled at least five times but time and again he eventually withdrew the score to continue work on it. He truly conceives and writes his music molecule by molecule. One tends to forget about the painstaking effort he takes for years and years with his pieces. Of course I had always hoped for a piece by Dutilleux written especially for myself…”
Levin’s predilection for French music dates back to his youth when, starting from the age of twelve, he was able to spend several summers with the great Nadia Boulanger in France. “When I was 14 I studied for an entire year with her. The teaching programme included music theory, composition, piano and organ. She arguably was the greatest pedagogical talent in music, as one can deduce from the utmost individuality of her pupils such as Aaron Copland and Elliott Carter, Leonard Bernstein or Quincy Jones. Instead of applying one rigorous teaching programme she insisted on clarity, discipline and solid craftsmanship”, says Levin. When ECM’s Manfred Eicher suggested Robert Levin to record a solo recital it was immediately obvious to him to put a strong focus on French music. “It took us until the early years of the new millennium to agree on Dutilleux. And as I wanted to play all the pieces extensively on the concert platform before recording them, another couple of years passed to complete the album.” Unintentionally it has become a homage to Geneviève Joy whose interpretations of Dutilleux’ piano works, according to Robert Levin, “provide the lodestar to all of us who seek to follow in her footsteps.”
The American pianist (born in 1947), an internationally recognised expert on classical period practise and not least known as a long-standing musical partner to violist Kim Kashkashian, has long been an ardent pioneer in the field of contemporary music. He regularly gives premieres of new works by composers such as John Harbison or Stanley Walden. Levin first met Dutilleux during his summer season as Director in Residence at Nadia Boulanger's Conservatoire Américain at Fontainebleau in 1979 and has been his close friend ever since. Both the selection and the order of pieces and all questions concerning the musical text and its corrections were discussed between composer and performer in great detail. When he received the final mix, Dutilleux told Robert Levin he couldn’t imagine a better rendering of this music.
Levin had planned to include the sonata already in the programme for his debut in New York in 1987. “However, Dutilleux counselled me not to play the piece which he didn’t consider to be representative for his œuvre after almost forty years. This is all the more understandable as Dutilleux’s artistic development in the course of the years is no less astounding than Strawinsky’s or even Picasso’s. Back in the eighties, Dutilleux intended to finish a couple of preludes which he wanted me to perform, but as he usually works so meticulously slowly and with such precision, it took him another year to complete the four pieces.”
The fact that Dutilleux wrote comparatively little piano music after his early years might be explained with his early international success and the constant demand for his works from conductors such as Charles Münch or George Szell and from soloists such as Mstislav Rostropovich, Isaac Stern and Anne-Sophie Mutter. “The première of Dutilleux’s violin concerto ‘L’arbre des songes’ was scheduled at least five times but time and again he eventually withdrew the score to continue work on it. He truly conceives and writes his music molecule by molecule. One tends to forget about the painstaking effort he takes for years and years with his pieces. Of course I had always hoped for a piece by Dutilleux written especially for myself…”
Levin’s predilection for French music dates back to his youth when, starting from the age of twelve, he was able to spend several summers with the great Nadia Boulanger in France. “When I was 14 I studied for an entire year with her. The teaching programme included music theory, composition, piano and organ. She arguably was the greatest pedagogical talent in music, as one can deduce from the utmost individuality of her pupils such as Aaron Copland and Elliott Carter, Leonard Bernstein or Quincy Jones. Instead of applying one rigorous teaching programme she insisted on clarity, discipline and solid craftsmanship”, says Levin. When ECM’s Manfred Eicher suggested Robert Levin to record a solo recital it was immediately obvious to him to put a strong focus on French music. “It took us until the early years of the new millennium to agree on Dutilleux. And as I wanted to play all the pieces extensively on the concert platform before recording them, another couple of years passed to complete the album.” Unintentionally it has become a homage to Geneviève Joy whose interpretations of Dutilleux’ piano works, according to Robert Levin, “provide the lodestar to all of us who seek to follow in her footsteps.”
