This remarkable album was released on the 97th birthday of a composer who, over more than seven decades, had a profound influence on classical music. Born in 1916 and best known for his Violin Concerto, Henri Dutilleux continued the line of great masters of French music.
The album is a tribute to the composer by his former composition pupil, conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen, Music Director Laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Dutilleux’s Correspondances (2003), a song cycle for soprano and orchestra, setting texts by Rainer Maria Rilke, Prithwindra Mukherjee, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Vincent van Gogh, has never been recorded. The composer asked his former pupil to record the work, while he could still attend the sessions – which he did – making this World Premiere recording a document of historical significance
Joining the superb Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France is star soloist, soprano Barbara Hannigan, today’s most highly regarded interpreter of 20th/21st century classical vocal music
The album also includes new recordings of Tout un monde lointain for Cello and Orchestra (1970) and the orchestral piece The Shadows of Time (1997).

“Salonen does these three masterpieces (1997’s The Shadows of Time and the 1970 cello concerto Tout un monde lointain are the others) magnificent justice. In the 2003 title work, a close engagement with texts (by Rilke et al) is formidably reflected in Barbara Hannigan’s soprano singing.” The Sunday Times