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Mstislav Rostropovich Leads US Premiere of Henri Dutilleux's Correspondances with the National Symphony Orchestra

Apr. 01, 2006

Henri Dutilleux's Correspondances for voice and orchestra sees its US premiere on April 27 at the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, DC, featuring soprano Dawn Upshaw in her NSO debut and Mstislav Rostropovich at the podium. Written for the Berlin Philharmonic and dedicated to Simon Rattle and Dawn Upshaw, Correspondances received its world premiere in Berlin in September 2003 with Dawn Upshaw as soloist and Simon Rattle conducting. The work has since been taken up by numerous orchestras worldwide, chief among them the Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra National de France, the Toronto Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (at the BBC Proms), and the Helsinki Festival. Future performances are scheduled at the Aldeburgh, Salzburg, and Schleswig-Holstein Music Festivals as well as with the Orchestra de Paris and New World Symphony, among others.

Dutilleux comments that "the initial idea of the work consisted in making a choice of letters from various authors, susceptible of engendering different forms of lyrical expression conveyed by the soprano voice and the large symphonic orchestra." The composer ultimately set excerpts from letters of Vincent Van Gogh to his brother, Theo, of Alexander Solzhenitsyn to Mstislav and Galina Rostropovich, and poems of Prithwindra Mukherjee and Rainer Maria Rilke. Particularly noteworthy in these performances is Rostropovich conducting the setting of Solzhensityns' letter "To Slava and Galina" (dated February 9, 1984). The text emotionally recounts Solzhensityns' trials in labor camps ten years prior and expresses his deepest gratitude for the great support and sacrifices of Slava and Galina on his behalf during that time.

For more information on Correspondances and its American premiere, see the complete program note by Dutilleux at www.kennedy-center.org/nso/. For further information about Dutilleux and his works, please visit www.schott-music.com. 

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