French composer André Riotte (1928 – 2011) was closely involved with experiments in avant-garde music, following in the paths of Messiaen, Xenakis and Barraqué. He wrote widely for orchestral and chamber forces, but the piano was his central focus and his compositions for it charts his development from early neo-modal works through studies in pure sound, to the monumental inspiration of his large-scale works. Météorite et ses métamorphoses, one of the composer’s last works, is a monumental work for solo piano. Inspired by meteorites, which represented what Riotte saw as the immense probabilities of an uncertain destiny, he explored the organic progression of the original theme through 31 “metamorphoses” (Riotte’s preferred term for ‘variations’).This work was completed in 2001 and given its première by Thérèse Malengreau in Brussels in 2002, and in Paris a year later.

Listen to
Métamorphose XXIV – En rafales – Subitement calme

1 Météorite – Massif (01:56)
2 Métamorphose I – *** (01:12)
3 Métamorphose II – En oppositions (01:22)
4 Métamorphose III – Rapide et bien articulé (00:45)
5 Métamorphose IV – Avec simplicité, sans effets (01:13)
6 Métamorphose V – Rapide et précis (01:10)
7 Métamorphose VI – Hiératique (01:56)
8 Métamorphose VII – En volutes (00:46)
9 Métamorphose VIII – Coloré, en suspens (01:12)
10 Métamorphose IX – *** (01:25)
11 Métamorphose X – Naïf (01:44)
12 Métamorphose XI – Tranquille, un peu lourd (01:24)
13 Métamorphose XII – Sinueux (01:21)
14 Métamorphose XIII – Profondément calme et
      méditatif (04:10)

15 Métamorphose XIV – Staccato vif et vigoureux (00:40)
16 Métamorphose XV – Impulsif (01:17)
17 Métamorphose XVI – Avec fantaisie (01:20)
18 Métamorphose XVII – *** (00:36)
19 Métamorphose XVIII – Rapide, les accents marqués
      (00:58)
20 Métamorphose XIX – Cérémonieux (02:15)
21 Métamorphose XX – Frénétique (01:10)
22 Métamorphose XXI – Très fondu (01:40)
23 Métamorphose XXII – Avec simplicité mais volubile
      (01:13)
24 Métamorphose XXIII – Pas vite, en demi-teinte, de plus
      en plus effacé (01:50)
25 Métamorphose XXIV – En rafales – Subitement calme
      (01:23)

TOTAL TIME: 54:52

Born into an artistic family, the Belgian pianist Thérèse Malengreau was awarded her first prizes and Advanced Diplomas at the Royal Conservatory of music of Brussels and holds a degree in romance philology from the Université libre de Bruxelles. Her teachers include Nicole Henriot-Schweitzer, Bernard Lemmens, Yevgeni Malinin and Léon Fleisher. Her career as a recitalist and chamber music player has taken her throughout Europe. Her repertoire ranges from Bach to the contemporary, with a preference for music from the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.