Barbara Hannigan sings Dutilleux's Correspondances 8pm in Paris, Salle Pleyel.

I was at" Written on skin "première,(July 7th Aix Festival) then for its revival in Toulouse, and at her incredible "Lulu" at La Monnaie. Tonight she is singing the part (at the end) that Henri Dutilleux wrote for her.
This morning, (he is now ninety-seven ),  the orchestra and the singer made a special rehearsal for him, and he was there.
 So, at 8pm,  I'll be listening, because I know what her voice sounds like, I know how she sings with her whole heart and body.  Above all she is part of this contemporary music world which she brings to life for us.
 Of course I could have made the journey and stayed two nights to catch these two concerts at Salle Pleyel,
I wish I was young and fit all the time to travel cheap (even cheaper than I do) and get very affordable seats as well... Still I watch my radio programmes carefully and manage to catch what interest me most. And tonight I will be listening to the Berliner Philarmoniker live on France Musique.
 The first part is also outstanding with Mitsuko Uchida playing Beethoven 3rd concerto.
LINK
20h Salle pleyel
♫ Ludwig Van Beethoven Concerto n°3 en ut mineur Op.37 (1800)*
 ♫ Henri Dutilleux Correspondances (2003)** Cycle de cinq mélodies dédié à la soprano Dawn Upshaw sur des textes de Prithwindra Mukherjee, Soljenitsyne, Rilke et Vincent van Gogh.
 ♫ Robert Schumann Symphonie N°3 en mi bémol majeur (1850)
 Mitsuko Uchida, Piano*
 Barbara Hannigan, Soprano**
 Orchestre Philharmonique de Berlin Simon Rattle, Direction
 Pict  from http://www.grandspeintres.com/vangogh/tableau.php?tableau=terrasse&id_peintre=4

Correspondances: Vincent Van Gogh writes to his brother Theo about the night in Arles... the café at night and his craving to paint the stars...which he did in two  masterpieces and Henri Dutilleux did as well with music and the Voice.
Philarmonique de Radio France E.Pekka Salonen, Barbara Hanigan soprano. Henri Dutilleux
LINK

V De Vincent à Théo... Vincent van Gogh

... Tant que durera l’automne, je n’aurai pas assez de mains, de toile et de couleurs pour peindre ce que je vois de beau.
... J’ai un besoin terrible de religion. Alors, je vais la nuit, dehors, pour peindre les étoiles. Sentir les étoiles et l’infini, en haut, clairement, alors, la vie est tout de même presque enchantée.

... Tout et partout, la coupole du ciel est d’un bleu admirable, le soleil a un rayonnement de soufre pâle et c’est doux et charmant comme la combinaison des bleus célestes et des jaunes dans les Vermeer de Delft. Malheureusement, à côté de soleil du Bon Dieu il y a, trois quarts du temps, le Diable Mistral.

... Dans mon tableau « café de nuit », j’ai cherché à exprimer que le café est un endroit où l’on peut se ruiner, devenir fou, commettre des crimes. Enfin, j’ai cherché par des contrastes de rose tendre et de rouge sang et lie de vin, avec les verts-jaunes et les verts-bleus durs, tout cela dans une atmosphère de fournaise infernale, de soufre pâle, à exprimer comme la puissance des ténèbres d’un assommoir.

􏰀 1960 Éditions Bernard Grasset, traduction française
de Maurice Beerblock et Louis Roëlandt

V From Vincent to Theo Vincent van Gogh

... As long as autumn lasts, I shall not have hands, canvas and colours enough to paint the beautiful things I see.
... It does not prevent me from having a terrible need of (shall I say the word – of) religion – then I go outside in the night to paint the stars ... And all the same to feel the stars and the infinite high and clear above you. Then life is almost enchanted after all.

... Everywhere and all over the vault of heaven is a marvellous blue, and the sun sheds a radiance of pale sulphur, and it is soft and as lovely as the combination of heavenly blues and yellows in a Vermeer of Delft ... Unfortunately, along with the Good God sun three quarters of the time there is the devil mistral.

... In my picture of the “Night Café” I have tried to express the idea that the café is a place where one can ruin oneself, go mad or commit a crime. So I have tried to express, as it were, the powers of darkness in a low public house, by contrasting soft pink with blood-red and wine-red ... with yellow-greens and harsh blue- greens, and all this in an atmosphere like a devil’s furnace, of pale sulphur.

􏰀 2001 R. G. Harrison, for the English translation