S C O R E S / P A R T I T I O N S
Here is the catalog of Eric Montalbetti's available scores. To know more about each work, click on a title below to open the page showing all information needed.
Voici le catalogue des partitions disponibles d'Eric Montalbetti. Pour en savoir plus sur chaque pièce, cliquez sur le titre d’une oeuvre ci-dessous afin d'ouvrir la page correspondante.
MUSIC FOR SOLO VOICES, CHOIR & ORCHESTRA
Fragments pour une Messe pour contralto & ténor solistes, choeur & orchestre (2025, ca 40')
Commission of festival de La Chaise-Dieu
- Kyrie, pour contralto & ténor solistes, choeur & orchestre
- Gloria, pour choeur & orchestre
- Sanctus, pour choeur & orchestre
- Benedictus, pour ténor soliste, choeur & orchestre
- Agnus Dei, pour contralto & ténor solistes, choeur & orchestre
Création programmée en août & septembre 2026
(À paraître aux Éditions Lacroch')
SOLO VOICE & ORCHESTRA
Cavernes & Soleils, concertino pour mezzo-soprano & orchestre de chambre sur trois poèmes d’Andrée Chedid (2022, ca 25’)
Commission of the Ensemble intercontemporain
First performed in Paris, Cité de la Musique in 2022 by Christina Daletska and Matthias Pintscher
Three beautiful poems by Andrée Chedid about our ups and downs as well as the miraculous beauty of the human face inspired this triptych as a prayer for hope.
As Matthias Pintscher suggested, the orchestration with double woodwinds, brass and percussions, harp, piano & célesta would also work very well with a larger orchestral string section.
Partition éditée par Allegretto en accord avec les éditions Flammarion et avec le soutien du CNM - Centre National de la Musique
(Editions Allegretto - disponible en location)
Deuil de cendres, pour ténor et orchestre (1992, ca 3')
Composed in 1992, an elegiac melody for tenor and orchestra
(Manuscrit - disponible auprès du compositeur)
CONCERTANTE ORCHESTRAL MUSIC
Concertino pour piano & orchestre 'Omaggio a Luciano Berio' (2025, ca 15')
Commission of Radio France
Composed for pianist Beatrice Rana who first performed it in February and March 2025 with Matthias Pintscher in Paris festival Présences and in Roma with l’Orchestra dell’ Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Jakub Hrůša
The concertino in 3 movements is starting with a rather dramatic Larghetto, followed by a joyful crazy Toccatina and ending in a more introspective and elegiac Adagietto.
Partition éditée par Allegretto avec le soutien du CNM - Centre National de la Musique
(Éditions Allegretto - disponible en location)
Nachtgebet (prière nocturne) pour violoncelle & orchestre (2023, ca 12’)
Co-commission of the Odense Symphony Orchestra (Denmark), Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège (Belgium) and Orchestre National de Lyon (France) first performed in 2023/24 by Tanja Tetzlaff with Pierre Bleuse, Alban Gerhardt with Lionel Bringuier, and Truls Mørk with Nikolaj-Szeps Znaider
Originally meant as a possible opener to the Schumann cello concerto, the piece can of course also be combined with other works. I did not quote any measure by Schumann, singing with my own voice, but a secret link reunites the two scores, in spirit as well as in the composition technic, as all the thematic material of the Schumann concerto is based on two very simple elements: a small interval (a minor or major second) followed with a series of arpeggios. My score also relies on this idea, though not in the tonal language of Robert Schumann, opening to different harmonies and emotions.
Partition éditée par Allegretto avec le soutien du CNM - Centre National de la Musique
(Editions Allegretto - disponible en location)
Concertino pour clarinette & orchestre à cordes (2024, ca 12')
Co-commission of Cameristi della Scala and Vevey Spring Classic festival
First performed in 2024 by clarinetist Pierre Génisson with Cameristi della Scala
2 playful short movements framing a longer and poetic lied which is alternating a chorus of mysteriously tender multiphonics to a lithesome singing melody.
Partition éditée par Allegretto avec le soutien du CNM - Centre National de la Musique
(Éditions Allegretto - disponible en location)
Concerto pour flûte & orchestre 'Memento Vivere' (2019, ca 23’)
Commission of Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, with kind support of Mrs Aline Foriel-Destezet
First performed in Geneva, Lugano and Paris in 2019 by flutist Emmanuel Pahud with OSR & Jonathan Nott
A virtuose and colorful celebration of breath and the miracle of life despite our tragedies.
World premiere live recording available on CD Alpha 1113 https://lnk.to/MontalbettiOrchestralPicturesAR
(Editions Durand - disponible en location)
ORCHESTRAL MUSIC without soloist
Miséricorde, pour orchestre à cordes (2023, ca 18')
Commission of Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne
First conducted by Renaud Capuçon in Lausanne
An exploration in various modes and scales of the many possibilities given by a string orchestra in 16 small sections without stop, from small chamber groups and concertante soli to the unified or all divisi tutti, inviting the listener to a meditative journey.
Partition éditée par Allegretto avec le soutien du CNM - Centre National de la Musique
(Editions Allegretto - disponible en location)
Ouverture philharmonique, mini-concerto pour grand orchestre (2020, ca 15’)
Co-commission of Radio France and Gürzenich Orchester Köln
First conducted in 2021 by Mikko Franck in Philharmonie de Paris and in 2024 by Duncan Ward in Kölner Philharmonie.
A mini-concerto for large orchestra, celebrating each section of the orchestra rather than soloists, and the pleasure of being immersed in rich orchestral textures.
German premiere live recording available on CD Alpha 1113 https://lnk.to/MontalbettiOrchestralPicturesAR
(Editions Durand - disponible en location)
Éclair physionomique, fantaisie symphonique après Paul Klee (2017, ca 31’)
Commission of festival Printemps des Arts de Monte-Carlo
First conducted and recorded in 2018 by Kazuki Yamada in Monaco, and by Pierre-André Valade with Tonhalle Orchester in Zürich.
A metaphoric score composed after a challenge given by Paul Klee to his pupils at the Bauhaus, which Pierre Boulez liked to quote in his lessons at the Collège de France. A round modal figure contrasts with a dynamic chromatic gesture, building together a universal portrait of our beings, torn between the desire for self-comfort or well-being and the will to act and change our destiny.
World premiere live recording available on CD Alpha 1113 https://lnk.to/MontalbettiOrchestralPicturesAR
(Editions Durand - disponible en location)
Fenêtres simultanées sur la ville, sinfonietta en hommage à Sonia & Robert Delaunay pour ensemble de 18 musiciens ou orchestre de chambre (a colorful sinfonietta inspired by the life and works of Sonia & Robert Delaunay in 4 or 5 movements for 18 musicians or chamber orchestra) (2020, ca 20' or 32’)
Co-commission of the Lemanic Modern Ensemble and Tokyo Sinfonietta
First conducted in 2021 by Pierre Bleuse in Geneva and Yasuaki Itakura in Tokyo and Kanazawa
Following the Delaunays moto, the idea is to spread colors all over the city to celebrate the healing power of art in our lives.
A choreographic production in Delaunay costumes and art works could also be imagined.
The 4th movement for ensemble, entitled « Louis Blériot, La Tour Eiffel et les Trois Grâces » can be performed solely, while the 4 other movements can also form a 20 minutes sinfonietta.
(Editions Durand - disponible en location)
Vaste champ temporel à vivre joyeusement, pour ensemble ou pour orchestre (2015, ca 13')
First performed in 2015 by Pascal Rophé & Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire in its orchestral version, and by the Tokyo Sinfonietta & Yasuaki Itakura in the version for ensemble.
Started on a few very dissonant chords, the piece opposes a lyrical motif for strings to another more lively and bumpy motif for woodwinds: that they represent lovers at first so different from each other and who will build their life together, or the moments of melancholy and the bursts of liveliness with which everyone has to compose their life, these motifs very gradually merge towards the same desire for harmony and eternity.
(Editions Durand - disponible en location)
CHORAL MUSIC
Psalterium pour choeur & violoncelle solo (2018, ca 20’)
Co-commission of Vocello and Festival International de Violoncelle de Beauvais
First performed in 2018 by Henri Demarquette and Sequenza 9.3 conducted by Catherine Simonpietri
I have composed my own Psalm from some fragments of the Bible Psalms in the French modern translation by writer Olivier Cadiot & biblist Marc Sevin, published in 2001 by Bayard. It may be translated to other languages as well.
The choir is divided in 11 to 12 parts, as the important colorature part can be divided in between two singers, like we did for the premiere.
The solo cello, placed nearby the sopranos, sings in all registers, from the bass and baritone tessitures to high harmonics.
(Editions Durand - disponible en location)
Inviolata, prière à la Vierge Marie pour grand chœur mixte a cappella (et Ondes Martenot ad libitum) (work in progress, ca 8’)
(Manuscrit - disponible auprès du compositeur)
Ave Maria pour chœur mixte a cappella à huit voix réelles (Soprano 1, Soprano 2, Mezzo-soprano, Alto, Ténor 1, Ténor 2, Baryton-basse et Basse) (work in progress, ca 8’)
(Manuscrit - disponible auprès du compositeur)
CHAMBER MUSIC
Quintettino pour clarinette & quatuor à cordes (2025, ca 12')
Chamber music version of the Concertino for clarinet & string orchestra composed for Pierre Génisson, a co-commission of Cameristi della Scala and Vevey Spring Classics festival
2 playful short movements framing a longer and poetic lied which is alternating a chorus of mysteriously tender multiphonics to a lithesome singing melody.
Partition éditée par Allegretto avec le soutien du CNM - Centre National de la Musique
(Éditions Allegretto - à paraître prochainement)
Quatuor à cordes 'Harmonieuses Dissonances' (2019, ca 24’)
A co-commission of the festival Les Musicales de Colmar and Le Volcan, scène nationale du Havre
First performed in 2019 in Colmar by Les Dissonances (David Grimal, Stefan Simonca-Oprita, David Gaillard & Xavier Phillips) who later recorded the piece for Alpha Classics, as well as by Quatuor Mona in Le Havre.
As Jean Cocteau wrote : “Harmony is the reconciliation of opposites, not the crushing of differences.”
If I subtitled this quartet Harmonious Dissonances, it is of course a play on words for its first performers (the quartet “Les Dissonances”), but also a statement of what ultimately seemed to me to be the very essence of the composition : to start with a few contrasting motifs, in different tempi and which may at first appear as dissonant as they are divergent (like the contradictory people, ideas, and feelings that life confronts us with), in order to build, by arranging and gradually enriching them, a form that is as balanced as possible and a new sense of harmony.
A symbolic way to express the quest for meaning that drives us.
As Michèle Tosi wrote about the recording : « La partition est d’envergure (24′), conçue d’une seule traite même si les quatre mouvements traditionnels s’y dessinent au fil de l’écoute. Le timbre est au service de l’expression, sollicitant le jeu sur le chevalet, avec le bois de l’archet ou en pizzicati, autant d’altérations du son en lien avec la dramaturgie. Car la tension est toujours entretenue, tout comme la fermeté voire l’âpreté du geste et la vigueur polyphonique, dans une première partie sans concession. Au mitan du quatuor, le solo de violoncelle sur une toile en pizzicati, semble agir comme un signal dans une trajectoire où cellules thématiques et figures structurelles fibrent l’écriture et engendrent une dimension narrative. C’est à Schoenberg que l’on pense et aux ressorts de la variation continue, s’agissant d’une partition d’une grande rigueur d’élaboration, restituée de manière exemplaire par Les Dissonances. » (Michèle Tosi, ResMusica - Mai 2020)
Recording by Les Dissonances available on CD Alpha 583 https://lnk.to/EricMontalbetti_ChamberMusicAr
(Editions Durand - disponible sur musicshopeurope.com)
Quartettsatz (mouvement de quatuor) pour quatuor à cordes (2019, ca 11’)
The first movement of my first String Quartet can be performed alone in concert under the title of « Quartettsatz » as an homage to the 2nd Viennese school.
When it was first performed in the summer festival of Radio France in Montpellier by the Mona Quartet in 2023, Marie-Aude Roux wrote in Le Monde : « Une musique dense, joueuse et coruscante, dont les modes de jeux disruptifs s’efforcent de trouver un terrain d’entente » (« Dense, playful and coruscant music, whose disruptive playing modes strive to find a common ground. »)
(Editions Durand - disponible sur musicshopeurope.com)
Trio pour violon, violoncelle & piano (2015, ca 13’)
Premiered on CD for Alpha Classics in 2020 by the soloists of the Ensemble Intercontemporain Hae Sun Kang (violin), Eric-Maria Couturier (cello), and Hidéki Nagano (piano).
A first version was given in concert in Spain at the Torroella Festival in 2015 by Hae Sun Kang (violin), Won Hae Lee (cello), and Antoine Ouvrard (piano).
The Trio is composed of three movements, each paying an hommage to a different movement in the fine arts at the beginning of the 20th century: the Suprematism of Malevich and El Lissitzky, the Orphism of the Delaunays, and the Futurism of Boccioni.
As Michèle Tosi wrote in ResMusica: "The discourse is tense and the writing abundant, a sort of melody of timbre full of rough edges, in a first movement. The dialectic of the mobile and the immobile is then exercised in Formes circulaires, where the interweaving of polyphonic voices reflects the spirit of the canon. Beneath its toccata-like appearance, the third movement flows straight ahead, with three superbly woven instrumental lines nonetheless launching their multiple bursts."
And Arnold Whittall wrote in Gramophone magazine: "The emphasis is on energetic pattern-making, with repetitions combined in different, often highly diverse contrapuntal textures and moving from what in the first movement could almost be an echo of Schoenberg’s Phantasy for violin and piano to more static, minimalist rotations, all projected with wit and precision in this performance."
CD Alpha 583 https://lnk.to/EricMontalbetti_ChamberMusicAr
Composé dans les années 1990 et créé au disque par Hae Sun Kang, Eric-Maria Couturier & Hidéki Nagano, solistes de l’Ensemble intercontemporain
(Editions Durand)
Duo pour violon & piano (2019, ca 18’)
A commission of the Spannungen festival in Germany, where Lars Vogt and Christian Tetzlaff kindly invited me as composer in residence in 2019.
The piece is dedicated to them with the subtitle « thankful song for life in friendship ».
It was premiered in Heimbach by Christian Tetzlaff (violin) and Alexander Vorontsov (piano).
Guido Fischer wrote in Rondo Magazine : "For nearly 20 minutes, this highly expressive, wildly and dazzlingly sparkling piece, which then shifts back into a melodiously sparse state, is under immense, sustained tension."
And Eckard Weber in Concerti : "The duo premiered by Christian Tetzlaff and Alexander Vorontsov is direct, engaging, and demanding for both soloists. The violin reaches the highest trebles, reaching whistling harmonics, while the piano creates iridescent sonic landscapes. Both performers excel in their intonation, coloration, and phrasing."
World premiere recording by Deutschlandfunk available on CD Alpha 583 https://lnk.to/EricMontalbetti_ChamberMusicAr
(Editions Durand)
Hommage à Matisse, 3 vocalises pour clarinette & voix de femme, ou clarinette et cor de basset (2019, ca 15’)
Composed for the 150th anniversary of Henri Matisse
First performed at the Matisse Museum in his birthplace Le Cateau-Cambresis as well as in front of Musée Matisse during the Nice Classic Live festival, by clarinetist Pierre Génisson and mezzo-soprano Delphine Haidan
The piece is in 3 movements :
- « Nu » celebrates the simplicity of the line in Matisse’s beautiful drawings,
- « Éclat » is inspired by the importance of light in Matisse’s work, as Guillaume Apollinaire noticed « l’œuvre d’Henri Matisse est un fruit de lumière éclatante. (…) Ce peintre n’a cessé de suivre son instinct. Il lui laisse le soin de choisir entre les émotions, de juger, de limiter la fantaisie et celui de scruter profondément la lumière, rien que la lumière »
- « Couleur » has been composed following Matisse’s own words : « je posais ma couleur ; c’était la première couleur de ma toile. J’y joignais une deuxième couleur, et alors, au lieu de reprendre, quand cette deuxième couleur ne paraissait pas s’accorder avec la première, j’en mettais une troisième, qui devait les accorder. Alors il fallait continuer ainsi jusqu’à ce que j’eusse la sensation que j’avais créé une harmonie complète dans ma toile, et que je me trouvais déchargé de l’émotion qui me l’avait fait entreprendre ».
No words, just vocalises, for which I only notated phonemes, to give the exact colors which I wanted.
(Editions Durand)
3 Impromptus pour violoncelle & piano (2024, ca 14')
A commission of the association Les Amis de Beethoven
World premiere performance scheduled on 26 April 2026 in festival Beethoven à Beaune by Sung-Won Yang (cello) and Enrico Pace (piano)
‘Impromptus’ in the sense of the unexpected: three contrasting pieces, born from a new friendship, each questioning, in a different atmosphere, the simultaneous need to reunite or recognize oneself, and the necessity to renew and broaden one’s horizons. The score therefore plays with repetition as much as with the constant reinvention or transformation of motifs and harmony, while seeking to compose a journey that makes sense. A small celebration of the joy of unexpected encounters and the poetry of the unforeseen.
(Editions Allegretto - à paraître après la création)
MUSIC FOR SOLO INSTRUMENTS
Sonate pour violon seul (1990/1997, ca 12’)
Composed in my early 20s and first played in its original version by Guillaume Sutre when we were both students (winning a prize from Sacem and the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation), the Sonata for solo violin was revised in 1997 and only first performed in concert in 2016 by David Grimal in France, as well as recorded for Alpha Classics by Tedi Papavrami. David Grimal also played the piece in Bucharest and Cluj for festival Enescu, and Tedi Papavrami in the summer festival of Radio France in Montpellier, and Christian Tetzlaff gave its German premiere at the Spannungen festival in 2019.
Each of the 4 movements develops according to different variation techniques, and we find there as a first synthesis between modality and serialism from which I developed my language.
As Franck Mallet wrote in the CD booklet of the recording published by Alpha Classics, "initially conceived without a programme, this four movements work now seems to chart the development from adolescence to adulthood. With its broad, nervous gestures, the first movement can be regarded as an affirmation of the subject. The more reflective second movement expresses a kind of tenderness and the quest for an interior dialogue, but also conflicts and exasperation. By contrast, the tenuous, fragile sound of the third movement is a slow, quasi-elegiac introspection with a longing for eternity. The final station of this revolution is the fourth movement's return to life, with its cheerfully flaring fireworks".
(Editions Durand - disponible sur musicshopeurope.com)
Un herbier pour la vie pour violoncelle seul (2007, ca 20’)
This Herbarium for life is a small suite for solo cello in three movements (Élégie, L'Absent, Bicinium). It was composed as a tribute to the loved ones who passed away but will always remain in our hearts.
The complete suite is about 20 minutes long, but one can also play the Elegy or Bicinium separately, as well as the combination of only the second and third pieces L'Absent & Bicinium.
The suite was first performed and recorded by Marc Coppey, who also supervised the edition with me. Alejandro Viana later performed the piece at Fondation Louis Vuitton on Gautier Capuçon's invitation following a masterclass, Damien Ventula played the Bicinium, and Henri Demarquette the Elegy, from the Beirut Chants festival in Lebanon to the Concerts de Poche in France.
(Editions Allegretto - disponible sur BabelScores.com)
Memento Emmanuaile pour flûte traversière (2019, ca 5’)
Dédié à Emmanuel Pahud et en hommage au sculpteur Antoine Poncet.
First performed by Emmanuel Pahud at the Wiener Konzerthaus in 2020.
Invited by Emmanuel Pahud to compose a new piece for solo flute based on my concerto Memento vivere, I composed Memento Emmanuaile as a tribute to the sculptor Antoine Poncet, whose sculpture Ailiotrope had been a benevolent presence during the composition of the concerto. I can even say that this sculpture, in a way, helped me find the form of my piece, in a same search for elevation.
With this new score, I am particularly moved to have been able to deepen my collaboration with Emmanuel Pahud and that he has chosen to program it, despite all the difficulties of a season disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, at the Konzerthaus in Vienna and the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, and subsequently in Italy, Slovenia, France, and Japan.
(Editions Durand, disponible sur musicshopeurope.com)
Esprit tendre pour hautbois seul (2008, ca 7’)
Esprit tendre for solo oboe was composed as a tribute to Helen & Elliott Carter on his 100th birthday. It gradually forms a portrait of the same person, bringing together some of her most varied moods under a single line. The piece was premiered on CD by Jean-Louis Capezzali (Alpha Classics, 2016) and in concert in Germany by Viola Wilmsen (solo oboe of the Deutsche Sinfonie Orchester in Berlin) during the 2019 Spannungen festival where Lars Vogt invited me as Composer in Residence.
CD Alpha 263 https://oh.lnk.to/MontalbettiSolos
(Editions Allegretto - disponible sur BabelScores.com)
Cinq formants pour clarinette seule (1995, ca 15’)
First performed on recording by Nicolas Balderyou for Alpha Classics.
The formants can be played independently of each other and in any order the performer can choose.
The first piece is composed as the development of a simple initial impulse, the second as poetic expression, the third as a more deliberate or assertive side of the first, the fourth as a great introspection, the fifth as a new cycle of variations, taking up the character of the first four pieces in a renewed writing, and ending with a variation to the power of two, mise en abyme of the whole cycle.
This score is dedicated to my elder son, Antoine.
CD Alpha 263 https://oh.lnk.to/MontalbettiSolos
(Editions Allegretto - disponible sur BabelScores.com)
Prière de l'Ange gardien pour cor solo (2014, ca 8’30'')
This Prayer to the Guardian Angel for solo horn was composed in 2014 and dedicated to Matthieu Romand. It was first performed in 2016 on recording by David Guerrier.
Marc Vignal wrote in Musikzen : "Particularly original is the Prayer to the Guardian Angel for horn, breathing deeply to the summit of hope".
« Poignante et mélancolique, la Prière de l’Ange gardien, pour cor solo, s’élève sur les cimes de l’espoir. Son chant respire à pleins poumons dans son désir d’implorer la grâce, auréolé d’une tendresse infinie. » (Franck Mallet, booklet of the recording on Alpha Classics)
CD Alpha 263 https://oh.lnk.to/MontalbettiSolos
(Editions Allegretto - disponible sur BabelScores.com)
Petite étude dans le mode crétique pour marimba (2019, ca 2’)
First performed in 2019 by Hans-Kristian Kjos Sørensen in festival Spannungen in Germany
(Manuscrit - disponible auprès du compositeur)
3 pezzi senza titolo (2024, ca 19')
Primo pezzo senza titolo pour accordéon (ca 8')
Secondo pezzo senza titolo pour clarinette en si bémol (ca 5')
Terzo pezzo senza titolo pour violoncelle (ca 6')
A commission of Festival Printemps des Arts de Monte-Carlo, 3 Pezzi senza titolo was premiered in 2024 by Fanny Vicens, Véronique Fèvre and Frédéric Audibert at NMNM - Nouveau Musée National de Monaco.
(Manuscrit disponible auprès du compositeur, à paraître aux Éditions Allegretto et prochainement disponible sur BabelScores)
Ludes & autres pièces brèves pour les jeunes pianistes (1980s & 1990s, ca 17’)
Prélude - 3 Ludes & demi - 3 Interludes - 3 Pas-Ludes - 3 Postludes
This playful selection of pieces composed in my own childhood develops in an eclectic variety of styles with humor, passion and poetry.
It is dedicated to my younger son, Gabriel.
It was first performed in Monaco festival du Printemps des Arts 2018 by young students of the Conservatoire d'Antibes-Juan-les-Pins.
The 3 Postludes have also been published separately.
(Editions Allegretto - disponible sur BabelScores.com)
Trois études formant Sonatine-méditation pour les jeunes pianistes (1987, ca 7’)
Composed in my childhood, these three small pieces were composed as a kind of meditation from Earth to the Beyond.
It was first performed in Monaco festival du Printemps des Arts 2018 by young students of the Conservatoire d'Antibes-Juan-les-Pins.
(Editions Allegretto - disponible sur BabelScores.com)
Trois études après Kandinsky pour piano seul (1990, ca 5’)
3 studies on 3 different levels of abstraction to express oneself, composed after 3 Kandksinky pictures of different periods : "Deux traits noirs" (1930), "Jaune-Rouge-Bleu" (1925) and "Lyrique" (1911).
First performed by François-Frédéric Guy in 2018 at the Amsterdam Muziekgebouw and recorded for Alpha Classics.
Kiveli Doerken also gave its German premiere on Lars Vogt's invitation at festival Spannungen.
After the first performance, Joep Stapel wrote on the Netherlands radio website NRC : « A striking world premiere, especially because Montalbetti composed the piece in his young twenties and left it aside for almost 30 years. This score turned out to be three vibrant abstract miniatures, full of life, of which the central movement - a journey from darkness to light - ends in radiant lyrical tremolos. »
CD Alpha 263 https://oh.lnk.to/MontalbettiSolos
(Editions Durand - disponible sur musicshopeurope.com)
6 Intermezzi pour piano seul (2024, ca 15')
Commission of Ars-Mobilis first performed by Momo Kodama in Paris, Tokyo and Nagoya in 2024/25.
As Michèle Tosi wrote in ResMusica : "Intermezzi by Éric Montalbetti is a cycle of six pieces composed like so many miniatures of pure music. No underlying images or narrative dimension, but gestures, a journey, and an energy that animate the sound material: unfolding, contracting, one could say of a music traversed by movement, letting its lines run across the entire keyboard register or tightening the space around complex chords that crystallize its colors. Polarities are heard (repeated notes) around which the trajectories and the sonic aura generated by the resonance are drawn. The part is virtuoso and superbly conducted, requiring great fluidity of play from the pianist. Momo Kodama assumes all the detours with mastery and elegance, from the deep basses that she probes with power to the sheaves of arpeggios that she lightly reels off up to the high threshold of the piano."
Following the world premiere, Pierre Gervasoni wrote in Le Monde : "Elegance of gesture, evanescent expression, gourmet harmony, all contributed to appreciating this music in the light of French tradition, from Claude Debussy to Pierre Boulez."
The video recording of Momo Kodama’s full performance in Tokyo Yamaha Hall is available on YouYube : https://youtu.be/dIfYGAM8Nfg?si=Y8qDvq7l5qVuc94X
Partition éditée par Allegretto avec le soutien du CNM - Centre National de la Musique
(Editions Allegretto - disponible sur BabelScores.com)
Toccatina pour piano seul (2025, ca 3')
The Toccatina, dedicated to Beatrice Rana, is a joyful crazy piece for solo piano, conciliating serialism with modality in a virtuose gesture.
An orchestral version also forms the central movement of the Concertino for piano & orchestra which was premiered by Beatrice Rana in 2025 in Paris and Roma.
(Editions Allegretto - prochainement disponible sur BabelScores.com)
***
13 scores are published by Durand (Universal Music Publishing Classical)
Other scores published by Éditions Allegretto are distributed by Babelscores.com (solos and chamber music) or available on hire (orchestral scores) from allegrettosas@gmail.com
New scores after 2025 will be published by Éditions Lacroch'
For more information about further projects, see the page Projects or do not hesitate to contact me