LAURENT PETITGIRARD (b.1950): Cello Concerto (Gary Hoffman [cello], Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra), Dialogue for Viola and Orchestra (Gérard Caussé [viola], Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine), Le Légendaire for Violin and Orchestra (Augustin Dumay [violin], Classical Polish Philharmonia).
Catalogue Number: 08J098
Label: Naxos
Reference: 8.557602
Format: CD
Price: $11.98
Description: Although writing in a resolutely modern, eclectic idiom that is hard to classify, Petitgirard has a gift for urgent communication and melody - perhaps related to his work for film and the ?stage - which renders these concertos instantly accessible. Dialogue sounds like just that; the composer speaks of it as a chamber piece in which the partner with which the soloist is in continuous and varied discourse is actually a large symphony orchestra. The cello concerto is a celebration of the instruments eloquent, vocal qualities, and although without a program, the work sounds like a narrative with a clear direction. The music takes on a somber, highly concentrated quality in the last movement - hints of Sallinen and Shostakovich - which the composer suggests is related to the loss of a close friend around the time of composition. Le Légendaire adds the unusual resource of a chorus to the forces for a violin concerto, engaging in dialogue, confrontation and finally reconciliation with the soloist around the idea of legend, of 'otherness', lending the work a sense of epic scope. Laurent Petitgirard (conductor).