The Discovery Series: Dutilleux – Ainsi la nuit

A Discovery Series program devoted to the French composer Henri Dutilleux, with his string quartet Ainsi la nuit, presented at The CheckOut in Chicago.

Henri Dutilleux (1916–2013) was a French composer whose music draws on the orchestral color of Debussy and Ravel while developing a harmonic language of his own. His best-known works include his First Symphony (1951), Métaboles (1964), the Cello Concerto Tout un monde lointain… (1970) and the Violin Concerto L'arbre des songes (1985). Ainsi la nuit, from 1976, is a string quartet and one of his chamber works.

This program in The Discovery Series is devoted to Dutilleux, and Ainsi la nuit is the work named in its title. The CheckOut, the Chicago venue hosting it, presents concerts and shows. It suits listeners interested in 20th-century French music who want to hear the chamber side of Dutilleux's catalogue alongside his orchestral scores.