LDV110

20 DEBUSSY ∙ MURAIL | RÉVOLUTIONS Can we talk about a musical narrative? I would say that the unity of style reveals the narrative. This is the mark of a great composer (as indeed of a great writer). Murail’s style is dreamlike and reminds us at times – with the innumerable changes of colour and the spatialisation of sound – of the late style of Scriabin. One could almost speak of a synaesthetic approach to music, as in Scriabin’s Prométhée or certain works by Messiaen (although Murail doesn’t evoke this approach directly). To provide a brief introduction to the works recorded here: Impression, Soleil levant alludes to Claude Monet’s painting of the same name. Impressionism, certainly, but with no attempt at copying anything. Mémorial is a work conceived after a visit to the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin. The superimposed granitic chords descend and then ascend towards the sky, conveying an intense emotion. The short piece Le Misanthrope plays with sudden swings of mood and tempo inspired by both Molière and Liszt. One could almost speak of a ‘melodrama’ tinged with questions that arise as if in a monologue between the composer and himself. With its highly virtuoso writing, Rossignol en amour uses birdsongs that have been analysed by computer beforehand. Tristan Murail’s harmonic signature is unique. He places the beauty of the music and the discourse in the foreground. It is emotion that takes priority, thanks to a sovereign stylistic mastery.