Customer Reviews

Henri Dutilleux: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2

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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 by 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:

Symphony No. 1 (1951 -- 30'51), and

Symphony No. 2 "Le Double" (1959 -- 28'49).

The First Symphony masterfully draws on myriad influences of its time (in addition to Debussy and Ravel, also Stravinsky, Bartok, and the later French composers Roussel and Honegger) without speaking yet in the uniquely Dutilleuxian voice he would forge with the "Symphony No. 2." It is a fine work in its own right, though, in an early 20th century modernist idiom. (Famously, Pierre Boulez stood and turned his back on this work at its premiere as a sign of his disdain since it did not utilize the serial technique than seen as de rigeur by Boulez and his Darmstadt circle.)

I consider "Symphony No. 2" to be one of Dutilleux's masterpieces. In three movements, written from 1957 to 1959, a commission for the 75th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, it marked the emergence of Dutilleux's unique voice, and the writing is vigorous, perhaps reflecting Roussel and Honegger in addition to Debussy and Ravel. Forceful outer movements are bridged by a more pensive central "Andantino sostenuto." The title refers to the use of a chamber ensemble playing versus the larger orchestra. This is a fine version, but I give Graf the edge with a sharper, more detailed recording.

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