About this Artist

Born: 1916, Angers, France

Died: 2013, Paris, France

HENRI DUTILLEUX hailed from an artistic family; his great-grandfather was a painter in the circle of Delacroix and Corot, and his grandfather was a composer and performer, and a friend of Fauré. The composer recognized his Piano Sonata, completed in 1948, as his Opus 1; it is a work that shows his move away from tonality, with its modal harmonies. It also demonstrates his debt to Bartók and to German music of the 19th century. He acknowledged the influence of French author Marcel Proust, whose ideas about time and memory have affected Dutilleux’s music both in the way the composer gradually reveals his themes over time and in his recollection of thematic material.