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Henri DUTILLEUX (b.1916) Complete Solo Piano Music Sonata (1948) [24:56] Trois Préludes (1973-88) [15:17]: Au gré des ondes (1946)
[11:44]; Hommage à Bach [2:48]; Etude [1:16] Bergerie (1947) [1:19] Tous les Chemins…mènent a Rome (1961) [1:42] Résonances (1965) [2:28]: Petit air à dormer
debout [1:16]; Mini-prélude en éventail [1:06]
John Chen
(piano)
rec. Genesis Concert Hall, Manukau City, Auckland, New Zealand,
July 2005 NAXOS 8.557823 [61:23]
Such
is the fastidious and painstaking approach to composition
of Henri Dutilleux that his entire output for solo piano
is accommodated quite easily on a single, hour-long disc.
As the dates above demonstrate, most of his keyboard works
come from earlyish in his career, before orchestral writing
really began to dominate his thoughts. The biggest and the
most important, the Piano Sonata, was started in 1946. It
was written for his wife, the pianist Geneviève Joy, whom
he married in the same year. Her recording of it has been
intermittently available over the years, last being seen
on a budget Ultima release (8573-88047-2). It’s had
a few good recordings, but the young New Zealand-based Malaysian
pianist John Chen has made it something of a speciality
in his concert programming and obviously feels a great affinity
with the piece.
It’s
a tight, classically-structured three-movement form, and
references to other composers are audible, the most obvious
being Bartók, whose folkish modality is echoed in the work’s
main opening motif. Chen’s nuanced yet propulsive playing
brings plenty of light and shade, as in the delicate bridge
passage that leads to the second theme (track 1, 2:09). He
is slightly less highly charged in the stormier passages
(as at 4:01) than my only available comparison, a superb ‘off
air’ Radio 3 performance from Artur Pizarro, but Chen is
very much alive to the many contrasts within the Sonata’s
rigid framework. He is suitably contemplative in the Prokofiev-like Lent second
movement, and rises heroically to the Sonata’s grand Choral
et Variations finale, whose imperious, dissonant opening
reminded me in passing of Copland’s piano music, some of
which was written after studies in France. I love the toccata
section beginning at 1:52, where Chen’s enviable technique
is fully up to the considerable demands placed on it. All
told, this is an excellent version which does complete justice
to a brilliant, multi-layered piece.
Of
the remaining works, many are miniatures lasting one or two
minutes, delicate little studies in mood, generally written
for occasional or functional purposes. Six of the best of
them were collected together as a suite in the same year
as the Sonata was begun, 1946, and given the collective title Au
gré des ondes. They are never less than entertaining
and Chen’s beautifully graded pianism is hypnotic.
I
was even more impressed by what I consider the best pieces
after the Sonata, Trois Préludes, which are the most
recent compositions on the disc. These were not conceived
as a cycle either but work very well as one. Here we get
echoes of Dutilleux’s most famous predecessor, Debussy as
well as a nod towards his older contemporary, Messiaen. The
third is the most substantial, covering a lot of musical
ground in its eight minutes and fully exploring the wide-ranging
sonorities of the modern piano. The clear, detailed recording
captures everything perfectly and Richard Whitehouse’s notes
are, as usual, well written and informative
This
release is part of Naxos’s excellent Laureate Series, where
young competition prize-winners from around the globe are
given a recording contract. Chen has won quite a few, most
notably the 2004 Sydney International Piano Competition,
and it’s easy to see why. I look forward to hearing more
from him.
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