Sixty this year,
Tristan Murail belongs with the late Gérard Grisey to the so-called
French ‘spectral’ school; but his music is far more reaching
as the works included in this new release amply show. Many of
his works bear some colourful, impressionistic titles, such
as Treize couleurs du soleil couchant, Couleur
de mer, Sables, Les courants de
l’espace as well as Winter Fragments,
Ethers and Feuilles à travers les cloches
recorded here. The music, however, is neither descriptive nor
programmatic. “Amongst the so-called ‘spectral’ composers, no
one more than Murail puts Nature forward as a source of inspiration...
This Nature that offers itself to the composer’s contemplation
is not particularly bucolic and would be linked rather to the
elements, their state and their changes of state.” These words
taken from Pierre Rigaudière’s excellent notes perfectly sum
up Murail’s approach to Nature as a source of inspiration for
his music. Of course, as will be seen later, Nature is not Murail’s
only inspirational source.
Winter Fragments
for ensemble, sampled sounds and electronics was composed in
2000. Sampled sounds and electronics are tastefully used to
enlarge and enrich the sound palette drawn from the ensemble.
The music here suggests clear frosty air, frozen ground and
emptiness with much subtlety. The result is a tone poem of some
sort with from time to time echoes (or suggestions) of Eastern
music, particularly in the important flute part. Ethers,
on the other hand, is a concise flute concerto in all but the
name, in which the music again vividly evokes vast empty spaces,
at times static and troubled. Throughout the entire work, the
music is underpinned by softly rattling sounds, over which the
music unfolds in some sort of awe-stricken ritual. Although
its title refers to Debussy, albeit in reverse order, Feuilles
à travers les cloches for flute, violin,
cello and piano is another beautifully evocative piece of music
that neither quotes from nor alludes to Debussy’s work. It nevertheless
displays some ‘updated’ Impressionism, which – incidentally
– might be a way to describe Murail’s music or, at least, some
of it.
Unanswered
Questions for solo flute is characterised by some richly
melodic writing, which seems to become more prominent in Murail’s
recent music. Again, the work and the music are completely unrelated
to Charles Ives’ almost similarly titled piece. To a certain
extent, I would be tempted to compare this lovely work to some
of Jolivet’s works for solo flute such as Incantations.
By far the longest
work in this release, Le Lac for ensemble obliquely
refers to Lamartine’s eponymous poem without any attempt at
reflecting the poem’s various moods. Musically, Le Lac
might be the most readily accessible work in this selection,
although none of the other is either difficult or intractable,
quite the contrary indeed. But what makes the music more accessible,
is the melodic richness of this score and the colourful scoring
sometimes redolent of Messiaen; but the music is clearly Murail’s
own. All in all, Le Lac is a splendid piece of
music on its own right, and – to my mind – a good example of
Murail’s highly personal Nature music.
Besides Murail’s
music, the ‘red threat’ here is Erin Lesser’s immaculate flute
playing. She not only plays in the Argento Chamber Orchestra,
but she is also heard as a soloist in Ethers,
Unanswered Questions and Feuilles à travers
les cloches. All performances are very fine, and the
recording serves Murail’s aural imagination well.
Murail’s is a distinctive
voice in French contemporary music, and this magnificent release
is to my mind the best introduction possible to his highly personal
sound world. Not to be missed.
Hubert Culot
Erin Lesser (flute)bcd
