Born in 1878, Gabriel Édouard Xavier Dupont entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of 15, studied with Massenet and Widor, and scored an early success with an opera performed at La Scala, before he died of tuberculosis at just 36. Dupont was already gravely affected by the condition as a teenager, and wrote this hour-long piano cycle between 1903 and 1905. Over the course of 14 movements, Les Heures dolentes (‘The Sad Hours) depicts the observations of an invalid as he contemplates the world from his sick-bed.

Beginning in relative calm, the cycle gradually increases in intensity, punctuated by periods of respite and consolation (‘Une amie’ arrives with flowers) and impressions of life outside (children playing in the garden), before the culmination of the climax in the penultimate piece (‘Nuit blanche – Hallucinations’), and a final return to calm, which leaves the listener a choice between hope and death.

But for his early death, Dupont might have been one of the most renowned and admired voices in musical Impressionism. A modern revival of interest is bringing to light his major works, which focus on music for the stage and for the piano: this release is the first in a series from Piano Classics documenting his complete piano output, which includes a second major cycle, La Maison dans les dunes.

This too will be played by Giuseppe Taccogna, a pianist from the south of Italy who still lives and teaches there as a specialist in Romantic and late-Romantic repertoire such as Dupont and Rachmaninov. Taccogna’s own survey of Dupont’s life and work is printed in the booklet of this studio recording, which was made near the city of Bari late in 2022.