Tristan Murail: spartiti difficile

Instead of considering the Piano as a percussion instrument (hammers hitting strings) Territoires De l'Oubli emphasises a different idiomatic characteristic of the instrument: a group of strings whose...

The title Attracteurs étranges ('Strange Attractors') alludes to that new universe of mathematics, the 'chaotic' world where one regroups fractals, the study of turbulence or population evolution. Cer...

Unanswered questions shares the solo flute from Ethers, but the sober, intimist character inferred by its intention - in other times, the piece would have been entitled Tombeau de Dominique Troncin -...

Le Fou à pattes bleues (The Blue-Footed Booby)

Cloches d'Adieu, et un sourire... ('Bells of Farewell, and a Smile...')This unpretentious little piece was written at the request of the German Radio, Deutschlandfunk, in memory of Olivier Messiaen.It...

La Mandragore ('The Mandrake')'Under the gallows grows the mandrake. At midnight, when the moon is full, it is picked beneath the hanged man who swings...'The mandrake: a Mediterranean plant used in w...

Comme un oeil... carries the influence of Messiaen - the piece was written for the entrance exam of the Conservatoire National de Musique de Paris, therefore before my studies with Messiaen. An allusi...

Les Travaux et les Jours is connected in a certain way to Territoires de l'Oubli, but listening to the resonances of the piano in a different manner. The work also looks to resolve a formal problem: 9...

Estuaire was an attempt at appropriating the serial aesthetic for my own benefit - I was trying to make it say something that it couldn't say: coloured images, gestures, moving shapes. The enterprise...

Recording:1 CD Rer Recommended, RER0271Messiaen et autour de MessiaenNadia Ratsimandresy (ondes Martenot)Matteo Ramon Arevalos (piano)

The Ondes Martinot was not highly respected at the time Mach 2,5 was composed. It was generally regarded dubiously or with condescension, as if it were only appropriate for somewhat 'old fashioned' mu...