Leduc Dutilleux Henri - Les Citations (version 2010) - Conducteur

Summary of This Score

"Books talk to each other": Umberto Eco's phrase could perfectly define the spirit of Les Citations by Henri Dutilleux (1916-2013). Conceived as a conversation between works, memories, and sonic signatures, this score stages a highly refined dialogue where each allusion becomes musical material, timbre, breath, and dramaturgy.

Written in 1991, the work was later reworked by Dutilleux for the Auvers-sur-Oise Festival, where the new version premiered in June 2010. This evolution highlights the composer's meticulous attention to the balance of sound layers, clarity of transitions, and sensuality of instrumental colors, within an ensemble as atypical as it is expressive.

The piece's origin dates back to For Aldeburgh 85, a tribute linked to the 75th birthday of tenor Peter Pears. Dutilleux invokes a fragment from Britten's Peter Grimes, an iconic role written for Pears, then enriches the journey with a movement titled From Janequin to Jehan Alain. Here one hears a song attributed to Renaissance composer Clément Janequin, "L'espoir que j'ay d'acquerir vostre grace," taken up by Jehan Alain in his Variations for Organ on a theme by Janequin.

The connection between these worlds is made through an Interlude introducing the motif of the "wolf's moan," borrowed from the ballet Le Loup (1953), composed by Dutilleux for Roland Petit's company. From these intertwined threads emerges a sparkling work where quotation is never decorative: it becomes language, memory, and poetic tension, carried by a play of shadows and lights of rare elegance.

Technical specifications

Musical Genre

Classical

Composer	Henri Dutilleux	Genre	chamber music, contemporary music
Instrumentation	oboe, harpsichord, double bass, percussion