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GLIMMERS IN A DARK AGE: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE MUSIC OF GUILLAUME CONNESSON

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 March 2019

Bernard Hughes
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Abstract

Guillaume Connesson (b. 1970) is one of the most widely performed living French composers, but his work is hardly programmed in Britain. He is well represented in commercial recordings and has been championed by the conductor Stéphane Denève across Europe and the United States. His music is in a post-minimalist, quasi-tonal language that is both engaging and contemporary, and he places himself in the firmly in the ‘musical family’ of French composers.

Type
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Information
Tempo , Volume 73 , Issue 288 , April 2019 , pp. 70 - 80
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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References

1 TEMPO, 65, no. 255 (2011), p. 86Google Scholar.

2 I have relied on Connesson's and his publisher's websites, on CD booklet notes and on YouTube interviews on Connesson's channel. There is an extended interview online, in French, with Philippe Banel and published in 2016 on the online magazine Tutti, which is the source of direct quotations in this article where not otherwise noted www.tutti-magazine.fr/news/page/Guillaume-Connesson-Pour-sortir-au-jour-Mathieu-Dufour-Brussels-Philharmonic-Stephane-Deneve-fr. English translations of extracts from this interview are by Mary Wenham.

3 www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL13886A6A92B8DCA3.

4 (1) Cosmic Trilogy/The Shining One, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Stéphane Denève (cond.). 2010 CD. Chandos CHSA5076. (2) Lucifer, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Jérôme Pernoo (vc), Jean-Christophe Spinosi (cond.). 2014 CD. Deutsche Grammophon 4811166. (3) Pour Sortir au Jour, Brussels Philharmonic, Stéphane Denève (cond.). 2016 CD. Deutsche Grammophon 4812711.

5 Guillaume Connesson: Musique de Chambre, Érik le Sage (pno) et al. 2018 CD. Sony Music, 09075818792.

6 www.guillaumeconnesson.net.

7 Most of Connesson's music is published by Gérard Billaudot Éditeur, who have supplied some of the scores used in preparing this article. His catalogue can be found at www.billaudot.com/en/composer.php?p=Guillaume&n=Connesson.

8 Interview of Guillaume Connesson, www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0vV9MTwb1c&index=6&list=PL13886A6A92B8DCA3. The interview is in French with an uncredited on-screen English translation.

9 Interview of Guillaume Connesson, www.youtube.com/watch?v=adhiDWn7SKQ&t=0s&index=6&list=PL13886A6A92B8DCA3.

10 Examples 2–7 are all copyright Gérard Billaudot Éditeur and are used by kind permission.

11 Stéphane Friedrich, trans Stephen Pettit, liner note to Cosmic Trilogy/The Shining One Chandos CHSA5076.

12 Stéphane Friedrich, trans. Stephen Pettit, liner note to Cosmic Trilogy/The Shining One, Chandos CHSA5076.

13 Guillaume Connesson, trans. John Tyler Tuttle, liner note to Pour Sortir au Jour Deutsche Grammophon 4812711.

14 Marcel Larrieu, liner note to Lucifer, Deutsche Grammophon 4811166.

15 Guillaume Connesson, trans. John Tyler Tuttle, liner note to Pour Sortir au Jour, Deutsche Grammophon 4812711.

16 Gérard Billaudot Éditeur has just announced the recording of a new Connesson disc for Deutsche Grammophon, bringing together these last two pieces with the saxophone concerto A Kind of Trane (2015).

17 The work is scheduled to be performed by pianist Clare Hammond and the Philharmonia Orchestra in Cardiff on 25 June 2019.

18 As listed on www.bachtrack.com, accessed 25 October 2018.