David Grimal and Les Dissonances perform Dutilleux's Ainsi la nuit (Thus the night)

Les Dissonances is a pioneering musical collective that performs in varying instrumentations and without a conductor. Here the collective’s string quartet formation performs Dutilleux’s magnificent Ainsi la nuit with the extraordinary David Grimal as first violin.

Considered to be one of the greatest composers of the 20th century, born in 1916 and a member of the French Resistance during World War II, Henri Dutilleux was lucky enough to experience considerable success during his lifetime. His work Ainsi la Nuit was initially conceived as a succession of 5 études for string quartet, a genre that he particularly admired. Composed between 1971 and 1977 and dedicated to the American art connoisseur Ernest Sussman, the work was repeated in its entirety in encore at its premiere! This exceptional performance by the Les Dissonances collective displays a degree of rhythmic and harmonic symbiosis that appears almost unreal.