The Itinéraire is one of those ensembles that have undeniably left their mark and shaped the landscape of contemporary music in France. At fifty years old, this collective of composers and performers still displays an incredible vitality and a thirst for exploring the sonic phenomenon in all its forms. The five associated composers, closely or loosely connected to its foundation (Tristan Murail, Roger Tessier, Gérard Grisey, Michaël Levinas, and Hugues Dufourt), most of whom emerged from Olivier Messiaen's class, have chosen to find a distinct path that starts from the acoustic properties of sound. As Gérard Grisey summarizes regarding his cycle "Espaces acoustiques," from which "Périodes," the oldest piece in the program, originates, it is about "no longer composing with notes, but with sounds."

From Grisey to the creation of Michaël Levinas' Trio, passing through Hugues Dufourt's The Watery Star, Tristan Murail's Cloches d'adieu et un sourire composed as a tribute to Messiaen, and Roger Tessier's Comme un écho de mémoire enfouie the concert of the "Founders" returns to the sources and splendidly opens the portrait dedicated to L’Itinéraire and the different generations of composers stemming from this spectral school, which, far from summoning the ghosts of the past, remains very much alive.

L’Itinéraire
Mathieu Romano, conductor

Hugues Dufourt, The Watery Star
Roger Tessier, Comme un écho de mémoire enfouie
Tristan Murail, Cloches d’adieu, et un sourire… In Memoriam Olivier Messiaen
Michaël Levinas, Trio (World premiere, commissioned by Festival Messiaen au Pays de la Meije)
Gérard Grisey, Périodes