Nicholas Kenyon 

Dutilleux: Correspondances – review

Henri Dutilleux's refined sound-world is beautifully captured here by former pupil Esa-Pekka Salonen, writes Nicholas Kenyon
  
  


The exquisite sound-world of Henri Dutilleux is one of the most refined in all contemporary music, and is here caught to perfection by his former pupil, Esa-Pekka Salonen. The quirky cello concerto, Tout un monde lointain, based on Baudelaire, was originally for Rostropovich, here superbly played by Anssi Karttunen. Equally powerful is the title song cycle (2003), based on artists' letters, which Barbara Hannigan sings with bell-like purity. The biggest impact of all is made by Dutilleux's totally original The Shadows of Time (1997), with its piercing central section for three boys' voices setting words by Anne Frank. Orchestral colours are vivid but never overstated: a real late-20th-century masterpiece.

 

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