Figures en demi-teinte (2026)

for 2 pianos

Commissioned by Fondation Royaumont

Dédication to Wilhem Latchoumia and Ninon Hannecart-Ségal

Performers: Ninon Hannecart-Ségal (piano) & Wilhem Latchoumia (piano)

Premiere: 03/15/2026, Abbaye de Royaumont (France)

Duration approx. 15 min.

Publisher: Lacroch'

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« Between 1970 and 1976, Henri Dutilleux composed his famous cycle of four Figures of Resonance for pianists Geneviève Joy and Jacqueline Robin, a cycle that followed an earlier work for solo piano (Résonances, from 1962). This cycle was intended to be extended by a second set of pieces, mentioned in the preface of the first edition published by Heugel, which the composer ultimately never wrote. Deeply influenced in my early creative years by the work of the French composer and by this cycle in particular, I wanted, in a way, to continue Dutilleux's unfinished project by offering my own interpretation of these figures, in a more contemporary development (playing not only with the various resonances of the classical piano, but also slightly distorting its timbre and pitch, and blending the resulting sonorities in a hybrid pianistic gesture that is the main subject of my compositional research). In order not to consider myself on the same level as my illustrious predecessor, I chose to propose only three figures, the third being abruptly stopped before completion, and before a sound volume too present could be established (the title of my figures evoking the shadows and indistinct contours of the penumbra that Dutilleux liked, playing in a zone between the inaudible and the mezzopiano).