In mathematics, { } signifies the empty set. The ‘catalogue team’ in my experience is { }. Nonetheless, I thank my lucky stars they’ve made as much classical music available to us as they have. Those missing recordings do serve as a burr under the saddle, though. Particularly when they are considered by some as an exemplary recording.
@Thomas_Becker I believe Chesky Records pulled their recordings from TIDAL in 2017. Probably never added them to Qobuz. I did a search on Qobuz by label and got { }. They were, at one point, available for streaming on Spotify and Google Play Music. May still be. Used CD’s are still a great option. Hope you find one soon.
Following a cover to cover BBC Music read, I decided I had to have a listen to cellist Edgar Moreau’s latest release, Weinberg • Dutilleux Cello Concertos, both composed for Mstislav Rostropovich and here performed with the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Andrew Poga conducting. I have greatly enjoyed previous recordings with this artist and have a particular fondness for cello performances. I initially didn’t recall hearing either piece before and found them both superb. I was particularly taken, though by Tout un monde lointain, not a cello concerto proper but a stunning composition. A five movement piece, with each bearing a title and quotation from Charles Baudelaire’s Les fleurs du mal, Mr. Moreau’s cello bowing and brilliantly articulate pizzicato and the superb now discrete, now assertive, always percussive orchestral accompaniment are, in aggregate, astonishing. I immediately followed this up with a listen to a few other Tout un monde lointain recordings, including that by the dedicatee himself.
The Rostropovich performance with Serge Baudo conducting the Orchestre de Paris was wonderfully colored with such sweet and lyrical bowing and perfect orchestral accompaniment. After hearing young Edgar Moreau’s incredibly articulate pizzicato, I found M. Rostropovich’s somewhat wanting, but this is quibbling. His performance was superb. I did, however, find myself wishing that Janos Starker had performed this, but one did (does?) not play pieces dedicated to a living performer. I prefer less vibrato.
The accompanying Witold Lutosłaski cello concerto is also masterfully performed here.
I listened to a number of other excellent Tout un monde lointain recordings and each brought me to a deeper appreciation of this great composer. Now in the hunt for as much Henri Dutilleux recorded repertoire as I can find. I find the compositions I’ve listened to thus far simply riveting. Recommendations welcome and thank you BBC Music for the recommendation/review.
BTW, the Gramophone Classical Music Awards 2023 are now posted. @Traian_Boldea recommended one of these earlier this year.
You are searching correctly. Chesky Records did not make it available for streaming.
I have the Chesky release of this album on LP somewhere in storage . The recording was originally on budget LP labels long ago (RCA Gold Seal and Quintessance). Chesky obtained rights to reissue it as a remastered “audiophile” release first on LP, then later on CD. Chesky did other remastered reissues of historic recordings, such as the Reiner/Chicago Scheherazade and Earl Wild/Horenstein Rachmaninoff 2nd piano concerto, and jazz, all of them curated for good sound and performance.
A few years ago, Chesky Records started up their audiophile download business HDtracks.com, and pulled the Chesky Records catalog from streaming services, except for their own produced recordings (mostly jazz) which are streamed only on lossy formats such as on Spotify. On HDtracks, it looks like their remastered reissues are no longer available.
I have the Hallé CD box but, for the second, I think the Royal Phil recording is extraordinary. I’ve actually listened to it several times on YouTube and like it more every time.
Follow-up to the Henri Dutilleux Tout un monde lointain piece (since there is such keen interest ), here is another of his compositions, Ainsi la nuit, again with challenging pizzicato, performed to perfection by the Takács Quartet. The Steven Hough compositional foray into string quartet music and the Maurice Ravel String quartet are also both delightful, superbly performed and recorded, but Dutilleux’s Ainsi la nuit is wondrous. This music may be challenging or simply unenjoyable for some potential listeners, but give it a fair, extended listen and see if you don’t come to appreciate what this perfectionist great composer (not quantitatively, but qualitatively) was up to.
“… Henri Dutilleux’s Ainsi la Nuit, in isolation, is the kind of jarring, squeaking work that may make audiences head for the exits.”
Wondrous that you listen to different performances back to back and live to tell us about it…
I have hearted the Ébène album in my library, but it is mood music… not something I could put on while working or reading or cooking… it requires dedication and concentration. If Schoenberg’s Transfigured Night is the ‘easiest’ piece in an album, you know what you’re up to…
I not only survive repeated listenings, but am invigorated by them. A second spoonful of delicious soup is almost always as delicious as the first, if not more so. I tried to provide fair warning to the more traditional harmonics-committed listeners on this blog. While I don’t find such works soothing, I do find them stirring, surprising, playful, lancing and even contemplative. I’ve been known to blissfully, if transiently, doze off whilst listening to Verklärte Nacht or a rousing bit of John Cage. There is something about Henri Dutilleux’s supra harmonic compositions that uniquely appeals to me. Vive la…,
No need for apologies… Truth is that the Schönberg with its late-Romantic tonalities and textures is easy enough on the ears. If you’re up to Isolde’s Liebestod, then Verklärte Nacht is just the dessert…
The Dutilleux is another thing altogether… stirring, surprising, playful, yes!! Contemplative… not so sure… I like it as a string quartet’s show piece, and the Ébènes not only play masterfully, but are blessed with a superlative recorded sound. I don’t know if there’s something to read up on Dutilleux’s thoughts and intentions, but I always fail to find the association with the ‘night’… But that may be so because of my history of avoiding big city life… Where I live, night is rather quiet, maybe full of faint animal sounds and now, nearing the end of the year, exploding from time to time with the odd firecracker…
The other day (two weeks ago already) I forgot to mention this album… As expressed previously in another post, all of Ricercar Consort’s releases on Mirare are great, and this one is no exception.
Recorded in summer 2005, this album was posthumously dedicated to Sophie Watillon…
@bill_perkins , I just listened to it, in thanks that you have listened to some 17th / 18th recordings at my instigation.
I confess I don’t understand (yet) what Dutilleux is trying to say — I don’t intuitively understand why the notes were chosen. It might help if I studied the score, but perhaps not. I hear echoes of Bartok and Webern, for some reason.
Since I can’t hear what ties the sounds together (the gestures remain isolated sound packets, though some of the cells seem to almost transform), I find it hard to be moved by more than the sonic qualities of the playing (admittedly quite visceral).
When you listen to it, do you anticipate upcoming fragments? Do you hear the now leading to the future? Do you follow the journey as it unfolds?
. The recording was originally on budget LP labels long ago (RCA Gold Seal and Quintessance). Chesky obtained rights to reissue it as a remastered “audiophile” release first on LP, then later on CD. Chesky did other remastered reissues of historic recordings, such as the Reiner/Chicago Scheherazade and Earl Wild/Horenstein Rachmaninoff 2nd piano concerto, and jazz, all of them curated for good sound and performance.
), here is another of his compositions, Ainsi la nuit, again with challenging pizzicato, performed to perfection by the Takács Quartet. The Steven Hough compositional foray into string quartet music and the Maurice Ravel String quartet are also both delightful, superbly performed and recorded, but Dutilleux’s Ainsi la nuit is wondrous. This music may be challenging or simply unenjoyable for some potential listeners, but give it a fair, extended listen and see if you don’t come to appreciate what this perfectionist great composer (not quantitatively, but qualitatively) was up to.
I not only survive repeated listenings, but am invigorated by them. A second spoonful of delicious soup is almost always as delicious as the first, if not more so. I tried to provide fair warning to the more traditional harmonics-committed listeners on this blog. While I don’t find such works soothing, I do find them stirring, surprising, playful, lancing and even contemplative. I’ve been known to blissfully, if transiently, doze off whilst listening to Verklärte Nacht or a rousing bit of John Cage. There is something about Henri Dutilleux’s supra harmonic compositions that uniquely appeals to me. Vive la…,