the restored Halle is opened - 24 May 2013

from Nouvelle République - with many thanks

Henri Dutilleux 1916 - 2013

“Everything that Dutilleux has written in the last decades belongs to the category of masterpiece”. These were the words of conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen regarding the French composer, Henri Dutilleux, who sadly died last week ( + 22 May 2013) at the age of 97. One of the great twentieth-century composers, he consistently gave us music full of wonderful sounds and ravishing orchestral effects. Nowhere is this more evident than in perhaps his best-known pieces, namely the concertos for cello (Tout un monde lointain) and violin (L’Arbre des songes). If you’re looking for an introduction to his music, then I’d suggest a 2-disc EMI set, which includes both of these concertos, featuring none other than Mstislav Rostropovich and Renaud Capuçon as the soloists.

Furthermore, there’s a truly outstanding disc from earlier this year, conducted by Salonen with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, containing one of my favourite Dutilleux pieces, Correspondances, for soprano and orchestra. This is most certainly worth a listen: not only is soprano Barbara Hannigan on typically amazing form, but I can think of no other orchestral piece that contains a duet (albeit a very brief one) for accordion and tuba!"

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/EMI/2068792?utm_source=News-2013-05-27&utm_medium=email

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/DG/4791180?utm_source=News-2013-05-27&utm_medium=email

Resident of Candes-Saint-Martin

- 36.6 kilometres from Richelieu -

(and the Ile Saint Louis, Paris)

"I'm afraid M. Dutilleux doesn't live here any more..."

***

An obituary from the Guardian

Harbouring Pearls in 1943 - two years after...

The town's Mayors since the guillotine fell

La ville de Richelieu et ses Maires
The town of Richelieu and its Mayors

Marianne

• 1791 - PATTEAU François       10 years          The Revolution

• 1801 - De La MOTTE                11 years
• 1812 - JAHAN Armand               3 years          Napoléon Bonaparte
• 1815 - MARTIN Charles            11 years          
• 1826 - TORTERUE Louis           4 years
• 1830 - FROGER René                 4 years
• 1834 - De La MOTTE                 1 year
• 1835 - RAGGONEAU               11 years
• 1846 - DELASSUS François      21 years!         Napoléon III
• 1867 - HULIN                              8 years           Franco-Prussian War
• 1875 - FROGER Léonide             7 years
• 1882 - LUNET Jules                     3 years    
• 1885 - JARRY Henry                   4 years           rue Jarry? and the railway station?
• 1889 - ORILLARD Paul              9 years
• 1898 - BRIDEL Eugène             21 years           WW1

• 1919 - PERROT Charles               6 years
• 1925 - PICHEREAU Oscar         12 years
• 1937 - MOULIN Fernand             9 years           WW2 &; the Occupation
• 1946 - SELVESTRE Dr.Louis     12 years          Liberation
• 1958 - FORTIER Dr.Marcel         31 years!
• 1989 - COQUERIE Gabriel           6 years
• 1995 - DEREUX Robert                6 years

• 2001 - GRAVEL Pierre                  7 years            La place du Marché
• 2008 - NOVELLI Hervé               5 years +....    La Halle de Richelieu

Maire Fortier, 1958 - 1989

Maire Coquerie, 1989-1995

Maire Dereux, 1995 - 2001

Maire Gravel, 2001 - 2008

Maire Novelli, 2008 - ...?

The re-opening of the Halle...

Restored for the first time since the 1640s, 371 years after the death of the original client, the 

cardinal duc Armand-Jean,

the town's market halle nears re-completion.

Modern regulations for food handling require a glass screen behind the restored railings,

but otherwise the structure is now historically impeccable - no expense has been spared.

A quality project - Bravo Hervé and his artisans!

Next restoration in 2384.

the official invitation to the opening

the gate to the place du Marché

Franck Maubert and his 2013 novel 'Ville Close'

Franck Maubert (b.1955) a french novelist and essayist who has written a short novel concerning the strange qualities of the cité idéale of Richelieu.  His first visit and the impressions formed were in the 1990s and this 2013 book sketches his perception of a little town dominated by its insistent stoney design and fabric.  He was struck by recent bizarre real events; including a suicide - a 'defenestration' - of a young woman, and other rather odd aspects of the little population and their strange and surreal habits.

Some of the descriptions are only too recognisable from the reality!

No references to the Abbé Henri Proust, thank goodness!

• 1985 : La Peinture moderne, éd. Nathan. Essai.
• 1997 : Lexique Toxique, éd.
• 2002 : Est-ce bien la nuit ?, éd. Stock, 136 pages. Roman.
• 2003 : Près d'elles, éd. Flammarion, 211 pages. Roman.
• 2005 : Le Paris de Lautrec, éd. Assouline.
• 2005 : Et les arbres n'en seront pas moins verts, éd. Assouline.
• 2005 : Gainsbourg for ever, éd. Scali, 136 pages.
• 2006 : avec Isabelle Maeght et Yoyo Maeght, Maeght: L'Aventure de l'art vivant, éd. de La Martinière, 309 pages. L'étonnante histoire de la famille Maeght.
• 2005 : La Mélancolie de Nino, éd. Scali, 136 pages.
• 2008 : Le Père de mon père, éd. Philippe Rey, 141 pages. Roman.
• 2009 : L'odeur du sang humain ne me quitte pas des yeux : Conversations avec Francis Bacon, éd. Mille et une nuits, 108 pages.
• 2012 : Le Dernier modèle, éd. Fayard / Mille et une nuits, 128 pages. Dans le Montparnasse de l'après-guerre.- Prix Renaudot de l'essai 20122.
• 2013 : Ville Close