Last night I saw the name of Henri Dutilleux on the program for the Low Brass Studio Recital at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. I tend to expect that I shall be unfamiliar with most of the composers at a recital featuring trombone, bass trombone, and tuba; so when I encounter one whose repertoire particularly interests me, I am curious about what he did for this distinctive setting. The work on the program was his “Choral, cadence et fugato,” composed for trombone and piano in 1950. The music certainly put the trombone through its paces, often in rather clever ways. However, those paces tended to involve intricate melodic lines, rather than that adventurous approach to sonorities that I had encountered in Dutilleux’ two concertos for violin and cello, respectively.
A quick check of his Wikipedia entry explained why this was the case. This trombone composition was the last of four “test pieces” he had composed for the Paris Conservatoire. (The other three were all for the wind family, compositions for bassoon, flute, and oboe written in 1942, 1943, and 1947, respectively.) In other words this was music for a student to perform to demonstrate that he was qualified to graduate, meaning that the whole purpose of the composition was to cover as much of the technical gamut as could be crammed into one piece. The Wikipedia author claims that Dutilleux subsequently “disowned” these compositions. In 1995 Claude Pichaureau scored the piano accompaniment of the trombone piece for symphonic band; but, whatever Dutilleux’ feelings may be, the performances currently available on YouTube all seem to be in the original chamber version.
I have to confess that I was a bit disappointed in Dutilleux for two reasons. The first was that I had hoped that he might have entertained ambitions of following in the footsteps of Paul Hindemith, building up a portfolio of solo works for all of the instruments of the orchestra. (Hindemith had written a trombone sonata in 1941.) However, I was equally disappointed that he should have been so dismissive of the works he did compose in this direction, even if his aesthetic approach were to then turn in a radically different direction. This trombone piece honored the need for quality student training; and it is clear from the YouTube page that many teachers and recitalists agree.
Comments