Paris finally honours a great composer

Paris finally honours a great composer

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norman lebrecht

September 17, 2015

A date has been set next Tuesday for the city to affix a plaque on the house where Henri Dutilleux lived and composed for many ears. The local authorities had initially refused to agree to the plaque after endorsing false claims that Dutilleux had been a wartime collaborator.

Henri Dutilleux rue saint Louis en l' isle , près de chez lui, en 1995

Comments

  • M2N2K says:

    Most composers aspire to write “for many ears” (if not those of their contemporaries then at least for the ears of future generations), but he was one of the few who actually succeeded.

  • debussyste says:

    Oh !!! I couldn’t be more happy ! It was such a shame toward such a great french composer on the part of the current socialist administration of Paris which is so philistine regarding great music. I was so deeply shocked by those ridiculous accusations because Dutilleux was a gentle and modest man although he was a musical genius of the highest order. It reminds me the bad treatment Berlioz received in France while he was and feated in Germany and Russia .

    ” plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose ” in France. Sadly …

    • John Borstlap says:

      Great composer, Dutilleux. While rivalling Pou Belle, he did not polemicize, which he easily could have done. His work inspired brilliant composers of today: Nicolas Bacri and Richard Dubugnon, although they created their own voice. In fact, Dutilleux is for that reason more ‘modern’, he stimulated new, and really musical creation. His work has not dated at all, because he did not jump on the bandwagon of ‘progressiveness’.

      • jaypee says:

        Could you just stop it? Please?
        You won’t make anyone change his mind and you know it. Therefore you’re just being annoying.
        Stop it. Now.

  • John Borstlap says:

    I wonder, are there any composers entombed in the Parisian Panthéon? ‘Aux grands hommes de la patrie’?

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