Thanks for posting a few comments on the Dutilleux. I got to hear it last month, day after hearing Metzmacher do Mahler 7 again (from the Proms). I did not hear overtly so much either emotionality or sensuality go into playing the Dutilleux, but what content this music does have along these lines most definitely comes out with such intense mastery of the elusive (elusive but intermittently concrete) language within which Dutilleux has written. While pointing up the elusive qualities of the Baudelaire, I find that this is music very much from a realistic perspective – and even in what is realistic, also in lif,e there are those qualities that always remain mysterious.

So enthralling was the intro Ingo gave you with the ‘apres-midi d’un faune. – and how organically the Dutilleux from the first note of it built upon its prespective. Just what did he tell the orchestra before they played it? I have never heard it more realistic, less impresionistic than this go at it – and with no loss in quality or the highest aesthetic means to achieve it. The very spirited, playful agon you and Ingo made of the Dutilleux was unforgettable – surpassing the classic EMI recording – even with nobody better to capitalize on the highest reaches of the part than Slava.

Once blog and my act overall are together, the review I have already typed of the concert will post – and soon – on blog listed above. You will also be encouraged to know that hardly any better choice of maestro or maestra could have come about than to have for the American premiere of the Chin concerto. Programs I have picked up of Boulez and Birtwistle, Beethoven Fourth Symphony and Berlioz Te Deum have indicated so much.

Thank you most of all on what you invested on the Dutilleux. I’ve never had this man’s compositions make before so strong an impression on me.

Very warmest regards,

David

P.S. Was it Thomas Hecker who played the opening of the Debussy? His very dark tone, whoever it was, carried the strongest pull, allure ….

Hi Angel,
oh yes, Spain got lucky, and Spain will win the whole thing, they deserve it, best team on the planet. Looking forward to a hopefully exciting game!
Best wishes from Munich to Madrid,
Alban

Congrats for your new cd. I am looking forward to hear it.

All the best,
Ángel

Its quite funny when you write that you are an old-fashioned artist, but one can easily understand what is meant by this after listening to your audio samples. If I my ears don’t trick me you pay more attention to a performance with (honest) emotion instead of technical perfection, right?

I look forward to the new Cd! What pieces from Casals’ favorites will be on it?

Nice greets from Xanten!