Henri Dutilleux - 1ere Symphonie / Timbres; Espace; Mouvement Ou "La Nuit Etoilee" (2005)

Timbres, Espace, Mouvement avec Interlude (Timbre, space, movement) is a work for orchestra composed by Henri Dutilleux in 1978 that is perhaps his most recorded piece. It is subtitled La Nuit Etoilée (The Starry Night) in reference to a painting by Vincent Van Gogh. The composer wanted to translate in his composition the "almost cosmic whirling effect which (the painting) produces." Exquisitely crafted with taut rhythm, jewel-like yet rich sonorities, and atmospheric, very 20th Century French harmonies. Dutilleux constructs music with a self-described "economy of means"; his orchestration separates the components of the orchestra in a way that makes his symphonies sound "unified like those of the past and open like those of the present". He is no ultra-modernist, but rather a rarified amalgam of Ravel, Honegger, Stravinsky, Roussel, and Debussy, along with Prokofieff and the Americans Paul Creston and Samuel Barber.

Tracklist

Symphonie No. 1:
1. Passacaille
2. Scherzo molto vivace
3. Intermezzo
4. Finale con variationi

Timbres, espace, mouvement:
5. 1st movement
6. 2nd movement


Lyon National Orchestra
Serge Baudo, conductor

Harmonia Mundi 905159