Dutilleux: Metaboles; Mystere de l'instant - Concerto for cello & Orchestra

Henri Dutilleux (Composer), Yan Pascal Torelier (Conductor), Yan Pascal Tortelier (Conductor), BBC Philharmonic Orchestra (Performer), Edward Cervenka (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Edward Cervenka
• Conductor: Yan Pascal Torelier, Yan Pascal Tortelier
• Composer: Henri Dutilleux
• Audio CD (November 18, 1997)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Chandos
• ASIN: B000000B1S
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #280,156 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Metaboles: I. Incantatoire

2. Metaboles: II. Lineaire

3. Metaboles: III. Obsessionnel

4. Metaboles: IV. Torpide

5. Metaboles: V. Flamboyant

6. Tout un monde lointain (Concerto For Cello And Orchestra): I. Enigme

7. Tout un monde lointain (Concerto For Cello And Orchestra): II. Regard

8. Tout un monde lointain (Concerto For Cello And Orchestra): III. Houles

9. Tout un monde lointain (Concerto For Cello And Orchestra): IV. Miroirs

10. Tout un monde lointain (Concerto For Cello And Orchestra): V. Hymne

11. Mystere de l'instant (grande formation): I. Appels

12. Mystere de l'instant (grande formation): II. Echos

13. Mystere de l'instant (grande formation): III. Prismes

14. Mystere de l'instant (grande formation): IV. Espaces lointains

15. Mystere de l'instant (grande formation): V. Litanies

16. Mystere de l'instant (grande formation): VI. Choral

17. Mystere de l'instant (grande formation): VII. Rumeurs

18. Mystere de l'instant (grande formation): VIII. Soliloques

19. Mystere de l'instant (grande formation): IX. Metamophoses (sur le nom Sacher)

20. Mystere de l'instant (grande formation): X. Embrasement

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This decade has seen the emergence of Dutilleux (b. 1916) as the most important French composer after Messiaen. Like Messiaen, Dutilleux works in a defiant atonality that sometimes embraces twelve-tone music, but at other times does not. The works on this excellent disc are all masterpieces, especially "Metaboles" (1964) and "Mystere de l'Instant" (1989), which have been recorded a number of times. "Tout un Monde Lointain" (1970) is a cello concerto that's quite graceful, if just as doggedly postmodern. If you like the postmodernism of Witold Lutoslawski, György Ligeti, and Alfred Schnittke, you'll really go for Dutilleux. Highly recommended. --Paul Cook

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tortelier's Dutilleux, with three mysterious works, July 24, 2011

By 

R. Hutchinson "autonomeus" (a world ruled by fossil fuels and fossil minds) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dutilleux: Metaboles; Mystere de l'instant - Concerto for cello & Orchestra (Audio CD)

Henri Dutilleux (b. 1916) has been the elder statesman of French music since Olivier Messiaen's passing (1908-1992). Dutilleux has never been prolific, but the quality of his small body of works is very high. He is a quintessentially French composer, obviously continuing in the vein of Debussy and Ravel with luscious orchestral textures and recurrent nocturnes with gauzy, oblique, fluid, drifting constructions. Dutilleux is a moderate modernist, maintaining continuity with the early 20th century and always maintaining a flowing, lyrical quality, reflecting his mystic vision of nature, even as he moves outside standard tonality.

There are two cyles of Dutilleux's orchestral music, this first one recorded from 1992 to 1997 for Chandos, with Yan Pascal Tortelier leading the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, and one recorded for Arte Nova in 2000, 2001 and 2004 with Hans Graf leading the Bordeaux Aquitaine National Orchestra -- a French conductor leading an English orchestra, and an Austrian conductor leading a French orchestra.

Tortelier's cycle is superb, and seems to be more widely heard. Graf's Dutilleux is also excellent, and quite competitive with Tortelier. Graf enjoyed a close relationship with the composer as he recorded these works, which are sharper, more detailed and Boulezian than Tortelier's, while Tortelier's readings are smoother, deeper, and more mysterious. Neither has a world-class orchestra at his command, but both produce fine recordings that complement one another. As Stravinsky said, a score will allow for more than one interpretation.

This disc in the Tortelier/Chandos cycle includes three works:

Metaboles (1964 -- 16'37),
Tout un monde lontain for cello and orchestra (1967-70 -- 27'56), and
Mystere de l'Instant for 24 strings, Cimbalom and Percussion, grande formation (1954 -- 15'30).

"Metaboles" in five movements, written from 1962 to 1964, is one of Dutilleux's more radical pieces. This is about as far out as he gets! The third movement utilizes a 12-tone motif, and Dutilleux writes a series of freely morphing themes that return to the starting point without passing through a standard sonata form of development.

The cello concerto "Tout un monde lontain" (A Whole World Distant) was written for Mstislav Rostropovich, based on Baudelaire's "Les fleurs du mal." It is performed here by Boris Pergamenschikow. I do not find this recording as convincing as the one by Jean-Guihen Queyras in the Graf/Arte Nova cycle, which has a more forceful and vivid cello part. It moves through five movements (Enigme, Regard, Houles, Miroirs, Hymne), each associated with a short verse from the poet, concluding "...keep your dreams: wise men do not dream as blissfully as fools!"

"Mystere de l'Instant" is a lovely early work, most notable for its textures, so well captured by the title. It features the Hungarian cimbalom as well as solo lines for violin and cello, moving through ten short movements. Edward Cervenka is featured on cimbalom.

(verified purchase from a large brick-and-mortar bookstore)