Michael Levinas

Lettres enlacées II

The title Les Lettres enlaces (Intertwined Letters) refers to a style of writing based on two melody lines that overlap, pile up, cross over and finally return to a more or less parallel position. The piece should therefore be thought of as true polyphony. The movement gives rise to a form of expression and energy whose origins lie in the tangled lines of Romantic piano music, especially that of Schumann and Brahms. Here a melody is written in canon in double-stopping, with one voice 'chasing' the other, overtaking by means of micro-intervals. Although the music, which is to be played legato, is in a fundamentally flexible tempo, the performer will discover that same expression by rigorously observing the written page. The mounting progressions in sections A, B, C and H should also be carefully thought out, while the patterns in section H may be considered as 'artificial glissandi', or even as global, paradoxical effects that result from the polyphonic intertwining. In section G, the performer should bring out the bell effect produced by the pizzicato on the open strings, as well as the gradual crescendo on the open C string. - Recording: - 1 CD aeon, AE0312, Les Lettres enlacées - Hindemith, Sonate pour alto et piano op. 11 no4 et Sonate pour alto et piano op. 25 no1 - Lévinas, Les Lettres enlacées II and IV - Gérard Caussé (viola), Quatuor Ludwig, Michaël Lévinas (piano) - 1 CD Accord, 461 785-2 - Musique de chambre - Quatuor à cordes no1 - Les Lettres enlacées II - Arsis et Thésis - Froissements d'ailes - Les Aragons - Ensemble Musiques Nouvelles, Ch. Desjardins, C. Binard, R. Safar, P. Davin