Dutilleux: Préludes (3)

Alexandra Dariescu presents the first disc in a 'Trilogy of Preludes' containing the complete works of this genre by Chopin and Dutilleux.

Frederic Chopin composed his 24 preludes, op.28, one in each of the 12 major and 12 minor keys, between 1835 and 1839, commissioned by the pianist, publisher, impresario and piano manufacturer Camille Pleyel.

Henri Dutilleux’s 3 Preludes were not designed as a set but composed at intervals between 1973 and 1994. Each Prelude is dedicated to a great Pianist: Artur Rubinstein (D’ombre et de silence), Claude Helffer (Sur um meme accord) and Eugene Istomin (Le jeu des contraries).

Alexandra finds the form of the Prelude as relevant today as in Chopin's time and was drawn to Dutilleux's use of polyphony and harmony in his fascinating contribution to an established genre.

Alexandra Dariescu is one of the most talented pianists of her generation and was featured as BBC Music Magazine’s Rising Star in June 2011. She has won the Guildhall Wigmore Prize and the Romanian Ambassador‘s prize for her outstanding contribution to promoting Romania’s image in the UK, and is currently a YCAT artist.

Two young British pianists in a fascinating CD of twentieth century and contemporary piano music.

These two young women pianists, both finalists in the .British Contemporary Piano Competition have assembled a fascinating CD of twentieth century and contemporary piano music. Oldest composer by far is Henri Dutilleux (b.1916) who is represented by three of his Préludes. Youngest is Gabriel Jackson (b.1962) who has four short evocative pieces included. Chronologically sandwiched between these two are four composers: Cornelius Cardew (1936 – 1981), Howard Skempton (b.1947), Dave Smith (b.1949) and Oliver Knussen (b.1952).

What is created is an eclectic paean of piano music which demonstrates both great technical prowess and immense tone and colour variation. In this is presented a catalogue of post-romantic pianistic style, with a variety and range of expression which is, if nothing else, educational! In fact it is far more than that. It is a minor compendium of compositional styles ranging from elaborate post-romanticism through to austere minimalism. Quite a journey but one which is well worthwhile!

The first-ever release on ECM of music by the doyen of French contemporary composition Henri Dutilleux (born 1916) features a comprehensive overview of his highly original piano pieces from his early period (around 1948) to the late eighties. They are played by American pianist Robert Levin, a personal friend of Dutilleux’s, who gives performances of gripping energy and serene clarity.

Levin notes: “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”. So his output is rather small, but these polished masterworks follow the ideals of beauty and poetic mystery – structurally complex but full of colouristic and rhythmic appeal. This programme opens with the ground-breaking piano sonata of 1946-48, 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 sophisticated music condensed to its very

essence – “document Dutilleux’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”.[.i]

Robert Levin (born 1947) is an internationally-renowned expert on classical period practice of improvised embellishments and cadenzas. His many recordings include Mozart concertos with Christopher Hogwood and the Academy of Ancient Music, and Beethoven concertos with John Eliot Gardiner and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. As Kim Kashkashian’s regular piano partner, he has recorded for ECM since 1984, most recently Songs from Spain and Argentina. In Figures de résonances the second pianist is Ya-Fei Chuang.

Roger Muraro conceived this anthology of piano music in homage to the great French pianist Claude Helffer (1922 – 2004). It offers a broad panorama of the keyboard’s aptitude for creation and its infinite possibilities, from the fading lights of Romanticism to the bright spotlights of Contemporary.