Although it is one of the most significant concertante works for cello and orchestra to have appeared during the second part of the twentieth century, the words cello concerto do not appear anywhere on the score of Tout un Monde Lointain (A Whole Remote World). Dutilleux took this title from Baudelaire's poem "La chevelure," from which the individual titles of the five movements are also taken. These ("Enigma," "Gaze," "Surges," "Mirrors," and "Hymn") suggest something of the atmosphere of the whole, but are not to be interpreted too literally. Structurally, the work is extremely complex. The opening movement sets out a basic dialogue between solo cello and orchestra, wide-ranging in tempo and registral effects, but with no sense of resolution between the protagonists. The music is cast as a set of variations on the 12-note theme heard at the outset and cross-referenced in each of the successive movements. The second and fourth sections are slow moving, while the third has the function of a scherzo, with solo writing of enormous technical difficulty. The final movement ("Hymn") is in the form of a vibrant Allegro, though the enigmatic overall feel of the work is still evident here. Dutilleux was commissioned to write the work by Igor Markevitch, who wanted a new concerto for Mstislav Rostropovich to perform with his Lamoureux Orchestra in the mid-1960s. Ironically, by the time Dutilleux began to write it, Markevitch had been replaced and the work was premiered by Rostropovich and the Paris Orchestra in Aix-en-Provence in 1970.

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