Timbres, espace, mouvement

Dutilleux subtitled the work La nuit étoilée (The Starry Night), in reference to the 1889 painting by Vincent van Gogh.

The composer wanted to translate in his composition the "almost cosmic whirling effect which (the painting) produces".

[1] Dutilleux dedicated the work to the memory of Charles Münch and to Mstislav Rostropovich, the conductor of its premiere.

Mstislav Rostropovich commissioned the work, and conducted the premiere with Washington National Symphony Orchestra on 7 November 1978.

Their absence was meant to translate the impression of relative emptiness and immobility conveyed by the lower half of the painting.