Henri Pousseur: Works for Flute

Album review

Henri Pousseur was one of the most important Belgian composers of the serial and twelve-tone movement. Born in 1929, he contributed to the nascent electronic studios in Cologne and Milan before founding one in Brussels in 1958, the year of the Universal Exhibition. After teaching in Darmstadt, Switzerland and the United States, he returned to Belgium in 1970 where he directed the Conservatory of Liège and founded the Centre de Recherches et de Formation Musicales de Wallonie, now known as the Centre Henri Pousseur. He was a close friend of Pierre Boulez who he met in Cologne in 1951 and was called in by IRCAM to create an institute of musical pedagogy within the framework of the Parisian institution. Like Boulez and Stockhausen, Henri Pousseur was also a theorist who left behind many important articles.

Born in 1949, the Italian flautist Robert Fabbriciani was a member of the Florentine Mai Musical Orchestra and the Orchestra for La Scala in Milan. He very quickly devoted himself to contemporary music and many composers wrote pieces for him. He became particularly interested in the use of electronic sounds and was at the forefront of experimenting with the whole flute family. His close collaboration with Henri Pousseur has seen several works be brought to life including Zeus joueur de flûtes (2006-08) for flute, tape and electronics composed jointly with the Belgian musician. It appears in this anthology devoted solely to Pousseur’s solo flute works. © François Hudry/Qobuz