June 5, 2014

  • Seattle Symphony Premieres New Label & Conductor in Stunning Dutilleux

     

    Dutilleux: Symphony No. 1, Tout un Monde Lontain; The Shadows of Time
    Xavier Phillips, cello.  Seattle Symphony/Ludovic Morlot
    Seattle Symphony Media 1001
    Total Time:  78:29
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    The Seattle Symphony has a long recorded history, some 140+ recordings, since its inception in 1903.  One of its last great period was the partnership it had with Gerard Schwarz on the Delos label which found them surveying some of the great, though lesser known, repertoire of American symphonic music.  They even managed a few film music recordings along the way.  The coupling of unique repertoire along with the well-known has made for a host of fabulous recordings.  Now, the orchestra has launched its own label coinciding with the appointment of Ludovic Morlot as its new Music Director in 2011.  The first release is a collection of music by the amazing French composer Henri Dutilleux (1916-2013).  A recording of Isaac Stern’s performance of the composer’s fascinating violin concerto back in the 1980s was my own introduction to Dutilleux’s music.  As a whole, his work is often strikingly dramatic, and perhaps even a bit mystical, with harmonic writing that shifts beautifully through tonal and dissonant ideas.  His handling of sonority within an ensemble is what lends his music a sense of Impressionist style at times.  This connection to Ravel and Debussy is perhaps the most fascinating for those unfamiliar with his work, but which helps to provide an easier entry to this music.  Ludovic Morlot is embarking on a complete series of recordings of Dutilleux’s work and this first disc is the result featuring three pieces from the early, mid, and later career of the composer.

    The recording opens with the 1951 Symphony No. 1.  In this work, there are several departures from traditional symphonic structure.  The work opens, for example with a passacaglia, and allows intriguingly for a perfect introduction to Dutilleux’s concepts of sound as the primary thematic idea is heard transferred through the orchestra.  The ensuing scherzo is an intense race through the orchestra followed by a beautifully lyrical intermezzo.  The finale begins rather explosively shattering the calm of the previous movement and launches then into a set of variations equally demonstrating Dutilleux’s lyricism and sense of sound.  The performance here is simply a knockout.  The opening movement is a bit breezy, but feels comfortably so.  The second movement is equally fast-paced without seeming frenetic.  One wonders if the second movement should have been a tad slower, but it is actually fairly close to most performances with its sometimes sinuous lines working well against the more central splashes of color.  The final movement is equally well-handled and it closes on a whisper which is itself striking after all that has preceded it.  The disc would be easily recommendable for just this performance alone, but there’s still more.

    Tout un monde lontain is actually a cello concerto written for one of the composer’s earliest champions, Mstislav Rostropovich.  The piece was completed in 1970 and is inspired by the poetry of Baudelaire with quotes before each of its five movements from Les fleurs de mal.  Each movement, and the work itself, take their names from poems in this collection.  In this work, we are able to see further development of Dutilleux’s musical aesthetic.  The idea of sound growing from nothing into a variety of sounds is on display well in the opening “Enigme” where a series of gongs and percussion lie in contrast to the lyrical solo cello line.  These ideas are supported by dense orchestral chords.  The cello is left hanging on a note in the upper extremes of its register which serves as a seamless connection to “Regard”.  Here the music takes on a more sensuous tone with richer harmonic ideas and a slower overall tempo.  An almost pointillistic approach to color is made in this movement as well and as it ends we hear echoes of the opening of the work.  In “Houles”, the sense of seascapes is part of the musical milieu which also applies some of the more mystical sense in its musical fabric.  We move to a more erotic musical landscape in “Miroirs” with interesting writing for mallet percussion.  More of this dreamy mysticism is part of this movement as well which sets us up a bit for the final “Hymne”.  This work sometimes feels and sounds a bit like an extension of Messian’s philosophical concepts of music with its religious sensibility.  Here, this is a more symbolist-like approach as one would expect given the inspiration.  But, the piece does tend to have a that quality of rapid shifts between dissonance and consonance with unusual sounds and sonorities that tends to be the norm for concert music in the latter 1960s and early 1970s.  Still, one can hear how Dutilleux explores sonorities and form so that the music does not seem a like a completely random series of events.  In fact, it feels very well constructed and the dramatic writing tends to have listeners on the edge of their seats.  Xavier Phillips’ performance here is excellent and makes a very good case for this work needing further exploration.  There will be much to reveal itself to further listening of this piece and performance.

    The Shadows of Time is among the composer’s final works.  It was begun in 1995 and finished two years later.  Begun on the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, the piece shows the composer looking back at the occupation of France that he lived through and which continued to haunt him.  Ideas of light and darkness are the starting points for the way these concepts will play out in the work.  Any connection to history comes to the front in the third movement, “Memoire des ombres” (dedicated to Anne Frank and innocent children) with three boy sopranos asking “Why us? Why the star?”  A constant pulse begins in “Les heures” with a bit more brass writing on display than heretofore in the pieces on this disc.  The harmonies have that continued blend of richness that comes from interesting dissonances and this helps set the sense of drama.  Some of the nervous energy of the piece provides the sense of forward motion but interestingly these ideas often get transformed between denser intense writing and a series of more tonal harmonic ideas.  Unusual sounds are also part of the overall sound picture as different instrumental extremes begin to enter the music.  Interestingly the piece feels as if it does not “end”.  Rather the final bars tick off suggesting that time continues beyond this momentary reflection which is rather fascinating.

    First off, the engineers for this recording have captured the Seattle Symphony in near-perfect sound.  The sometimes ambient feel of the Delos recordings has been replaced by a natural warmth that also allows for great clarity of individual sections and line.  Note that The Shadows of Time is taken from a live recording though audience noise is non-existent.  The orchestra is given a chance to show off its various sections throughout the disc and it is easily a reminder of the greatness of these players.  All said, this is an impressive debut of both the orchestra’s label and their new director.