Lühl-Dolgorukiy Vol. VII

Ce disque est le septième volume des CDs prévus pour l’intégrale des œuvres pour piano seul de Lühl. Il rassemble les premières œuvres (dans la suite chronologique directe du premiers CD), écrites juste après la fin de sa formation au Conservatoire National de Paris. Lühl compose à la table et n’a pas besoin de support instrumental pour se retrouver dans son monde de sons et de rythmes. Cependant, pianiste, il ne peut résister de répéter certains passages pour commencer à les travailler au clavier. Après dix ans d’études d’harmonie et de contrepoint, son travail est abouti. Ainsi avait-il déjà pensé, enfant, à composer sans relâche pour apprendre, mais pour plus tard, une fois qu’il aurait acquis les outils nécessaires, "ne plus faire de fautes d’écriture et de structure ni d’étourderies de jeunesse", puis à remanier toutes ses oeuvres de jeunesse pour les raccorder avec les oeuvres dites "correctes". Ainsi, il réalisa son projet sur des années, revisitant pièces pour piano, musique de chambre et symphonies en les réécrivant entièrement et ne gardant que le thème principal de manière à constituer à travers son catalogue, une unité, une cohésion stylistique et musicale.
Chaque future oeuvre s’inspire de la précédente, créant ainsi un fil conducteur. Son catalogue est considérable et regroupe déjà près de 230 opus (LWV = Lühl-Werke-Verzeichnis, "catalogue des œuvres de Lühl "), dont sept symphonies, trois concertos pour piano, diverses pièces pour soliste et orchestre, des poèmes symphoniques, de la musique de chambre... et pas moins de 170 pièces pour piano. Son opéra Unvergessen (Inoubliable) en trois actes sur un drame historique a été créé en janvier 2004 à Bolzano, capitale du Tyrol du Sud italien (10 représentations).
L’Association Vauban lui a commandé une série d’œuvres commémoratives pour célébrer l’année des 300 ans de la mort du Maréchal en 2007 : un Requiem In memoriam Vauban, le poème symphonique La Chamade sur l’ouvrage Traité d’attaque des places en douze temps, une symphonie de chambre pour orchestre à cordes, un quatuor à cordes, illustrant des lettres originales de Vauban, une Suite Royale pour corde ou flûte seule.
Lühl reste un compositeur foncièrement classique, suivant la tradition des contemporains de Brahms, Tchaïkovski, Rachmaninoff ou Scriabine. Fortement attaché à la symbolique, ses pièces libres portent souvent des titres énigmatiques et méditatifs. Lühl est un "international", se sentant, peut-être par ses origines familiales, artistiquement slave et germanique. Outre des transcriptions et des pièces individuelles, son catalogue pour piano seul comporte neuf sonates, onze ballades, une trentaine de moments musicaux, une trentaine de préludes, des valses, des études et des cycles d’œuvres. Pendant des années, il a préparé en tant que pianiste l’intégrale des oeuvres d'Alexandre Scriabine. Ensuite, c’est à Serge Rachmaninov qu’il dédie son engagement pianistique avec toute son énergie en cherchant des œuvres nouvelles et inédites. Lühl-Dolgorukiy est un artiste complet. Grand amateur d’Art Nouveau, de peinture impressionniste et d’architecture de la Renaissance italienne, il est également l’auteur de nombreuses œuvres littéraires en trois langues dans les thématiques les plus diverses (essais, romans à caractère historique, philosophique, futuriste ou dramatique, recueils de poésies, ouvrages scientifiques musicologiques, nouvelles...). Il travaille en collaboration avec les éditions phonographiques POLYMNIE pour l’intégrale de l’enregistrement de ses œuvres.

Elena Ossipova

Rêverie LWV 90
Cette petite pièce (29-30 août 2004) marque l’aboutissement de la grande phase créatrice et prolixe de Lühl concernant ses œuvres pour piano.

Ballade n°6 LWV 91
Cette pièce marque la fin d’une période de grand bonheur musical fortement productif dans la vie de Lühl, pendant laquelle il avait pratiquement composé une œuvre par jour, notamment ses 12 préludes LWV 89 (disponibles dans le vol.6 de ses pièces pour piano POL 104 108). Contrairement au foisonnement précédent, il mit plusieurs semaines à terminer cette pièce, commencée en pleine exaltation et freinée par un changement brutal de direction dans sa vie, d’où la chronologie légèrement saccadée selon ses numéros d’opus (date de commencement en juin 2004).

Etude LWV 96
Cette étude est la première pièce que Lühl composa après un long temps d’absence pour ses pièces pour piano (20-26 janvier 2006), entrecoupée notamment de sa Sixième Symphonie LWV 93 et d’un Rondo pour deux pianos LWV 94. Il resta pratiquement un an sans composer d’œuvres notables.

Moment musical LWV 97
L’un des quelque 23 moments musicaux composé en tout (5-6 avril 2006).

4 morceaux de fantaisie ( Fantasiestücke ) LWV 99
L’œuvre de Lühl est parsemée de cycles d’œuvres pour piano, parmi lesquels citons ces quatre pièces courtes (juin 2006).

Valse LWV 101
Parmi ses 20 valses, remarquons celle-ci par sa fraîcheur naturelle (5 juillet 2006).

Sehnsucht LWV102
Le titre de cette pièce, composée en Allemagne le 26 juillet 2006, peut difficilement se traduire littéralement en français : nostalgie, langueur passionnée, attente, le vocabulaire limite les sentiments véritables.

Erinnerung LWV 103
Composée en un soir d’été à Tournecoupe le 26 juillet 2006, cette pièce fut écrite dans le souvenir de sa rêverie LWV 90, d’où le titre.

Un regret LWV 104
Cette pièce mélancolique et techniquement peu difficile fut composée le 6 septembre 2006.

Sonate n°2 LWV 105
La deuxième sonate de Lühl, composée en Allemagne entre le 28 et le 30 septembre 2006, marque un nouvel élan dans sa conception autour de cette forme de prédilection. Toutes difficiles d’exécution, quoiqu’écrites en un seul mouvement sans pour autant insister sur une virtuosité gratuite, ses sonates demandent un grand soin de réflexion sur la forme et le fond.

This recording is the seventh volume of at least sixteen CDs planned as Lühl’s complete works for piano solo. This is “a moment of great happiness in my life”, he says, although sought after by everybody, and he lacks time for himself and composing. Lühl composes while sitting at the table and does not need any instrumental support to find harmony, sounds and rhythms because he hears them in his head. However, as a pianist he cannot resist playing certain passages he has just written just for pure digital pleasure and satisfaction. He has never changed his way of working.After ten years of studies in harmony and conterpoint his training was complete. Since childhood he always knew he would spend every moment composing once he acquired the necessary tools to do so. And so he completed his project over the years revisiting his piano pieces, chamber music and symphonies by rewriting them entirely and only preserving the main thematic elements, so as to create a unity in a stylistic and musical cohesion throughout his catalogue.
At the same time he continues to compose new pieces. Each future work is inspired by the previous one, creating in a way the thread that runs though time and space in his music. Each written piece is a witness, a page from a diary to be decoded by the listener. Lühl composes directly on paper without any drafts. His intellectual work goes like Arnold Schönberg’s case: the music runs through his head while walking or giving classes, or even riding his bicycle...! And often in addition to the work, “the inspiration comes while writing”. Once the sequence is clear in his head he only has to write it down. He works very quickly and his catalogue is quite large given his young age and already includes 260 opuses (LWV= Lühl-Werke-Verzeichnis, in English ‘Lühl’s composition catalogue’), which include eight symphonies, three piano concertos, various pieces for solo and orchestra, symphonic poems, chamber music, ... and at least 200 pieces for piano. His opera “Unvergessen” (“Unforgotten”) in three acts based on a historical drama was performed ten times in January 2004 in Bolzano, the Tyrolean capital of Northern Italy.
Several years ago, he started working with the “Vauban Association” to compose commemorative works on the great French Marshall de Vauban (1633-1707) for his tercentenary which was celebrated in 2007. He was in charge of the musical part and composed four great pieces: a string quartet, a Requiem in memoriam Vauban, a symphonic poem entitled la Chamade for choir and orchestra which illustrates Vauban’s essay on the attack and defence of fortified citadels, and a suite for solo string entitled suite royale (‘King suite’) honouring the memory of Louis XIV.

His pieces for piano are classed by cycle in accordance with his desire for unity throughout his work. He refuses “unusual” commissions (e.g. clarinet and flute, accordion and piano...), and by definition, all that is not useful for his purposes. He writes at the moment of inspiration and for stylistic unity. Eventually, his ultimate goal is to leave to posterity a cultural patrimony of quality as well as an entity which has witnessed his artistic processes during these years of creativity. Even in the choice of the nomenclatura, the construction of the work and its topic, Lühl remains a classical composer, following in the tradition of Brahms, Tchaikovsky or young Rachmaninoff and Scriabin, avoiding extravagant experiments. Strongly attached to symbolism, his free pieces often carry enigmatic and meditative titles. Having finished a twin training in piano and conducting at the Conservatoire National de Paris in 1995, he never went back to it as a teacher, as so many do. Lühl is an international musician, but he also feels, because of his family roots, closely connected to the Slavs and Germans. His music “lasts”, takes time to expand during long progressions. “Every work is a variation of the previous one with all its own innovations; the entire work of an artist actually is just a variation, a reflexion of his personality. [...] One has to find oneself through Beauty which one has so seek and find as one’s own Truth. It’s only like this that we can create our own style and our own musical personality, by using reflexes to formulate that which we like in our pieces. It’s in finding ourselves through music that we are capable of moving the listener, this silent judge who contributes to insuring a work’s perenity.”
Besides transcriptions and individual pieces, his catalogue for piano alone includes ten sonatas, eleven ballads, thirty musical moments and about forty preludes, waltzes, etudes and suites. Today, he dedicates his piano activity to Serge Rachmaninoff with all his energy, researching new and unedited works and recording them for Polymnie.
Lühl is an accomplished artist: an enthusiastic amateur of French Art Nouveau, the impressionist painters and Italian Renaissance Architecture. He is also the author of several essays, short stories and novels on philosophy, history, science-fiction as well as poetry and scientific works on musicology. His recordings are available at the music label POLYMNIE, for which he already recorded several works of his own, conducting an orchestra for his Fifth Symphony (POL 150 657), or playing the piano, and also seven CDs of piano pieces by S. Rachmaninoff. He is planning to record his entire work (about 55 CDs).

Rêverie LWV 90
This little piece (August 29-30, 2004), although rather unspectacular, marks Lühl’s composition climax in the early phase of his career regarding his work for piano solo.

Ballad n°6 LWV 91
This piece finishes his great creative and productive period during which he had almost composed one piano piece a day for a couple of months, among which his 12 preludes LWV 89 – available in his vol.6 (POL 104 108). As opposed to his previous frenetic creativity, it took him several weeks to complete his ballad, since his life was taking an unexpected turn and he needed time to adapt to the new circumstances surrounding his life. This is why the composition chronology and opus number doesn’t necessarily match in this case, since the piece was started in June 2004 and finished several months later while he was working in parallel on other ensembles (symphonies, two-pianos, etc.).

Etude LWV 96
This virtuoso piece (January 26th, 2006) is the first work for piano Lühl composed after almost one full year of other musical projects, among which was his Sixth Symphony LWV 93 and other major works for choir and orchestra.

Moment musical LWV 97
One of his 23 Moments Musicaux composed in April 2006.

4 Fantasiestücke LWV 99
Lühl’s work also features occasional cycles of piano pieces, among which we present these short pieces, composed in June 2006.

Valtz LWV 101
Among his 20 waltzes, this little piece distinguishes itself by its natural freshness (July 5th, 2006).

Sehnsucht LWV102
The title of this piece, composed in Germany on July 26, 2006, can barely be translated correctly into English: nostalgia, passionate longing, but also waiting for something.

Erinnerung LWV 103
This piece, composed in a Summer night at Tournecoupe, France, on July 26, 2006, reminds one purposefully of his rêverie LWV 90 which is why he called it accordingly.

Un regret LWV 104
This slow and melancholic piece was written on September 6, 2006.

Sonata n°2 LWV 105
Lühl’s second sonata, composed between September 28th and 30th, 2006, belongs to the set of technically difficult works which don’t necessarily show-off their virtuosity, but which on the contrary require deep reflection and thorough musical digestion.

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