Dutilleux's quartet Ainsi La Nuit plays with the listener's memory. The seven sections refer back and forth to each other in a poetic, associative manner. That game of referencing is undoubtedly peculiar to genre of the string quartet, where, after all, four players constantly challenge each other. String quartets often refer back to other string quartets. Dutilleux, for example, was inspired by
… Beethoven's late quartets. Ravel's Quartet is often programmed alongside Debussy's (with sometimes Dutilleux's Ainsi La Nuit as an alternative). The String Quartet by pianist and composer Stephen Hough was composed specifically as a complement to Ravel and Dutilleux. Well, complement. Actually, it's more of a critical note. Indeed, the title - Les Six Rencontres - is a nod to "Les Six," the burlesque collective that included Poulenc, Honegger and Milhaud. According to Hough, these young dogs had "more taste than style. In other words, their no-nonsense music offered the poignancy of the mundane, which, according to Hough, you don't easily find with Dutilleux and Ravel. (HJ)more
