In 2018, the French composer Tristan Murail became fascinated by a series of letters Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother Théo. In confused and desperate words, the painter begs for money, canvases, and paint. The inimitable brilliance of color and imagination with which van Gogh brought the Provençal landscape to life is what Murail seeks to evoke through sound colors.

His choice of flute and cello is no coincidence: the delicate, veiled palette of this combination—sometimes joined by piano—has long been cherished in French chamber music. As early as 1915, Philippe Gaubert composed his Trois Aquarelles, a splendid example of the impressionistic style that was then all the rage in France.

One might safely say that musical France has never really abandoned this path. Even Olivier Messiaen and Henri Dutilleux, despite their modernist ventures, remained faithful to a sonic ideal centered on color and timbre.

The exploration becomes truly fascinating when this quest for nuance and finesse penetrates the very core of sound itself. The recently deceased Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho—who spent much of her active career in Paris—loved to play with the natural overtones of sound. Today, she is regarded, alongside Tristan Murail, as one of the foremost representatives of the so-called spectralism.

Thomas Dieltjens, piano
Toon Fret, fluit
Martijn Vink, cello