Dutilleux: Tout un monde lointain (Concerto for cello and orchestra)

This remarkable album is released on the 97th birthday of a composer who has been working for more than seven decades and has had a profound influence on classical music. Born in 1916 and best known for his Violin Concerto, Henri Dutilleux continues the line of great masters of French music.

The album is a tribute to the composer by his former composition pupil, conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen, Music Director Laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Dutilleux’s Correspondances (2003), a song cycle for soprano and orchestra, setting texts by Rainer Maria Rilke, Prithwindra Mukherjee, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Vincent van Gogh, has never been recorded. The composer asked his former pupil to record the work, while he could still attend the sessions – which he did – making this World Premiere recording a document of historical significance

Joining the superb Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France is star soloist, soprano Barbara Hannigan, today’s most highly regarded interpreter of 20th/21st century classical vocal music

The album also includes new recordings of Tout un monde lointain for Cello and Orchestra (1970) and the orchestral piece The Shadows of Time (1997).

Now in his 90s, Henri Dutilleux is a master of the French tradition stretching back to Debussy and Ravel. He is known as a composer of beguiling orchestral textures, sensual colour and quiet purposeful drama who has not ignored the traditions of the past but built on them to create his own unique captivating sound.A dedicated composer weekend Discovering Dutilleux took place earlier this year at St David's Hall, Cardiff and Cardiff University in the presence of the venerable composer. He was also awarded an Honorary Fellowship from Cardiff University. Here we a unique opportunity to hear Dutilleux in conversation with Marc Copey and Jean-Michel Nectoux on the second bonus cd.

This seventh installment of the Anthology of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (2000- 2010) covers a period in the orchestra's history largely characterised by changing perspectives in a new century. Indeed, it was in 2004 that Riccardo Chailly relinquished his position as chief conductor after a 16-year-long tenure, whereupon the orchestra managed to forge what would be a long-term relationship with the renowned maestro Mariss Jansons. A specialist in Romantic, and particularly Italian, opera repertoire, Chailly was also an advocate of the modern classics and of contemporary music. His collaboration with the RCO resulted in internationally acclaimed recordings of works by such composers as Varese, Stravinsky and Berio.

The Latvian maestro Jansons, a passionate orchestral conductor particularly of the late Romantic repertoire, shifted the orchestra's focus more towards Tchaikovsky, Richard Strauss and Shostakovich, invariably endeavouring to strike a careful balance between clarity of form and aesthetics. In addition, Jansons successfully continued the tradition of high-profile co-productions between the RCO and De Nederlandse Opera with performances of Shostakovich's 'Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District' and Tchaikovsky's 'Yevgeny Onegin'. The orchestra itself also underwent changes. A generation of orchestral players, including the illustrious principal wind instrumentalists who had laid the foundations for the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, retired and were succeeded by a group of outstanding young musicians, most of them hailing from outside the Netherlands, resulting in a growing internationalisation of the RCO. There were also changes in the orchestra's business and artistic management and its concert programming policy also saw a shift in direction. The 'Picasso/Rembrandt formula' was retired to make way for the new A Series, featuring more firmly embedded contemporary, often Dutch, repertoire. The launch of the orchestra's own in-house record label, RCO Live, breathed new life into its rich recording tradition. The identity of a modern, 21st-century orchestra would be further bolstered by the RCO's active online presence, its own Web channel, effective use of social media, and the successful digital platform RCO Universe, a novelty in the orchestral world. This CD box set constitutes the final volume of the Anthology of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, a musical journey through time in seven installments, each made up of fourteen CDs of live concert recordings. Drawing on the wealth of recordings in the Dutch public broadcasting network archives, the compilers set out to create a colourful historical overview and sound mosaic whilst doing justice to the unique history of the orchestra from 1935, the year from which its oldest surviving radio recording dates. Repertoire, performance, conductors, soloists and recording quality were the criteria which, in the proper interrelationships, proved to be decisive. Working to document such a vast musical legacy has been a privilege, the compilers having been aware that the making of choices brings with it the duty to showcase as many aspects of this rich history as possible.

The compilers wish to dedicate this series to all the musicians who have been part of the orchestra over the past 125 years. It is hoped that all seven volumes will be re-released as a 'superbox' to celebrate the RCO's anniversary.