Henri Dutilleux was the composer of a small body of work. His colleague Messiaen found this both unfortunate and admirable. Unfortunate, of course, because there is no more. Admirable because such a small oeuvre focuses on masterpieces. Dutilleux considered the 1948 Piano Sonata his "opus 1. Especially typical are the Trois préludes from the 1970s. They are both sonorous experiments and expressive
… paintings on a canvas without a clear frame. The music is open and closed at the same time, balancing between flame and crystal (according to the characterization of pianist Vittoria Quartararo). Somewhat at odds with that high-quality ideal are the pastiches of Au gré des ondes (1946). In fact, these are intermission music for the radio, composed by Dutilleux in 1946 when he was still an employee at Radio France. Dutilleux did not include such snippets from the workshop in his 1993 list of works. However, the scores were still available. (HJ)more
