Cello Concerto "Tout un monde lointain"

Dutilleux, Henri

album cover

The Cello Concerto Goes Modern

The subtitle "Tout un monde lointain" (A Whole Remote World) says it all about Henri Dutilleux's mystical, slow-to-congeal Cello Concerto. Commissioned by one of the most colorful figures of classical music of the '60s and '70s—Russian cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich, who emigrated to the West in 1974—it transports listeners into an atmosphere that's unusually spooky for classical music. In this place, the wise-owl "voice" of the cello speaks of vague poetic rapture.

Dutilleux spent nearly a decade writing this piece, which has five movements rather than the conventional three. Each movement is "inspired" by a quote from French poet Charles Baudelaire, and occupies a distinct mood—the murkiest (and most entrancing) is the often tempoless fourth, which asks the string section to conjure a dense forest of shadows, with hints of danger lurking. It's one of the rare works for soloist and orchestra that doesn't state overt themes, but instead uses recurring rhythmic and melodic motifs to lure you into the process of theme-building. You listen as it is being born, so to speak, and if you're waiting for the romantic-era neon-sign "important" declaration, you'll be disappointed.

The writing forces the cello into demanding and sometimes unnatural positions—heart-rending melodies at the top of the instrument's range, and cluttered tangles of pizzicato notes near the bottom—and yet Rostropovich never sounds taxed. His spirited, surging interpretation overcomes the convolutions Dutilleux has loaded into the score: Rostropovich doesn't just master the considerable technical challenges, he makes this knotty music sing.

The other contemporary work on this collection was also written for Rostropovich—Polish composer Witold Lutosławski's Cello Concerto. This piece adheres to the general ethos of concerto form—it has three movements and revolves around the oppositional dynamic between soloist and orchestra, with the lone voice tossing out radical ideas that are eventually embraced by the group. But like Dutilleux, Lutosławski (1913–1994) is determined to push the established structures a bit, by introducing experimental harmonies and longish themes that don't repeat. Particularly striking are the outlandish exchanges and dramatic tussles of the final movement, which features the soloist at times brazenly taunting the group. Some have said that the piece is an essay on conformity, and that makes it a perfect vehicle for the mighty Rostropovich, who as a young man in the Soviet Union crusaded for free speech and eventually defected, settling in the United States in 1974. His authoritative readings of these two strikingly different pieces have helped both to become modern classics.

Genre: Classical
Released: 1970, EMI Classics
Key Tracks: Dutilleux: first movement, fourth movement. Lutosławski: second movement.
Catalog Choice: Dutilleux: Symphony No. 2, Metaboles, Orchestra National Bordeaux Aquitaine (Hans Graf, cond.). Lutosławski: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, Krystian Zimerman, BBC Symphony Orchestra (Witold Lutosławski, cond.)
Next Stop: Franz Liszt: Piano Sonata in B minor, Krystian Zimerman
After That: Pierre Boulez: Répons, Ensemble InterContemporain (Pierre Boulez, cond.)
Book Pages: 241–242