Les Belles Heures

Conceived in three movements, this concerto for oboe evokes three ''poetic phases" of the day: L'heure bleue, this is the period between day and night when the sky fills up with a darker blue than the earlier sky blue. It is during the first instants of L'heure bleue that all the birds start to sing, and in summer the fragrance of the flowers becomes more intense. L'heure exquise is the moment of ''a vast and tender appeasement" as Verlaine writes in the poem that I quote in the epigrap h of this slow movement. L'heure fugitive, is the time of pleasures and love, the "carpe diem" of Horace, with these verses of Lamartine as an epigrap h: "So, let us love, so, love! from the fleeting hour let us hasten and enjoy it!" The first movement (the longest of the three), L'heure bleue, is patterned on two themes: the first, disjointed and delicate, is set out by the soloist; the second, very expressive, is given by the violins. The development of the themes passes in turn from scherzando to lyrical to end in a cadenza performed by the soloist accompanied by a quivering orchestra. Nature is filled with songs, murmurs, and rustlings. Then, in the recapitulation, after the strong and exultant return of the first theme, everything calms down in an orchestral shimmering. The second movement, L'heure exquise, is in ternary form and dreamy in nature. The tender confidence of the soloist leads to the central part on a D pedal: time seems suspended and the soloist weightless. The third part recaptures the tender motif of the beginning, but winds down into a slow ecstasy. The third movement, L'heure fugitive, asserts an almost uninterrupted pulsation on a funky motif Only a few more lyrical measures, accompanied by the harp, allow for a breath of air before the return of the rhythmic trance that concludes in the frenzy of the soloist and the orchestra. Guillaume Connesson