CD1
Catalogue d’oiseaux, I/42
01 No. 1, Le chocard des alpes
02 No. 2, Le loriot
03 No. 3, Le merle bleu
04 No. 4, Le traquet stapazin
05 No. 5, La chouette hulotte
06 No. 6, L’alouette lulu

CD2
01 No. 7, La rousserolle effarvatte

CD3
01 No. 8, L’alouette calandrelle
02 No. 9, La bouscarle
03 No. 10, Le merle de roche
04 No. 11, La buse variable
05 No. 12, Le traquet rieur
06 No. 13, Le courlis cendré

Pierre-Laurent Aimard - piano

Renowned French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard kicks off his exclusive engagement to PENTATONE with a recording of Olivier Messiaens Catalogue dOiseaux (1956-1958). The pianist had intimate ties to the composer himself and his wife, Yvonne Loriod, for whom Messiaen wrote the Catalogue. Praised by The Guardian as one of the best Messiaen interpreters around, this is Aimards first recording of Messiaens most extensive, demanding and colourful piano composition. The luxurious release set contains an accompanying bonus film, on which Aimard shares his vast knowledge of and love for Messiaens work from behind the piano. Due to its radical naturalism, the Catalogue dOiseaux is exceptional within the repertoire for solo piano. It is the grand hymn to nature from a man who never ceased to marvel at the stupefying beauty of landscapes or the magic of bird song. With his Catalogue, Messiaen tried in his own words to render exactly the typical birdsong of a region, surrounded by its neighbours from the same habitat, as well as the form of song at different hours of the day and night, suggesting an almost scientific approach to his subjects. The idea of reproduction may have been central to Messiaens conception of the Catalogue dOiseaux, but in the finished work we hear a great composer at work, a master of innovative structures who finds an astonishing range of piano sonorities. In a world that is increasingly being destructed by man, Aimard views this cycle as a musical refuge that resonates with an audience ever more concerned, expanded and affected. --- Editorial Reviews, amazon.com

Unsurprisingly, Pierre-Laurent Aimard’s interpretations are anything but tame. His dynamic range is formidable, his voicing of chords scrupulously faithful, his clarity unimpeachable. It’s hard to imagine the textures having greater impact or precision, or the continuity and discontinuity being projected with greater concentration. Nigel Simeone’s essay for Pentatone is exceptionally informative on factual background. One can only salute this outstanding achievement. --–Gramophone, arkivmusic.com

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Visions De L'Amen, For Two Pianos (1943)
1 	Amen De La Création 	6:31
2 	Amen Des Étoiles, De La Planète À L'Anneau 	5:18
3 	Amen De L'Agonie De Jésus 	8:11
4 	Amen Du Désir 	11:18
5 	Amen Des Anges, Des Saints, Du Chant Des Oiseaux 	6:43
6 	Amen Du Jugement 	2:53
7 	Amen De La Consummation 	6:20

8 	Pièce Pour Le Tombeau De Paul Dukas 	3:55
9 	Rondeau 	2:20
10 	Fantaisie Burlesque 	6:57

Steven Osborne - piano (1 - 10)
Martin Roscoe - piano (1 - 7)

Steven Osborne has already made his name as an outstanding interpreter of Messiaen with his ecstatic recording of the Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant Jésus (Hyperion, CDA67351/2), which was described by Gramophone as ‘one of Hyperion’s finest piano recordings—quite an achievement in a catalogue of outstanding piano discs’. Here he is joined by Martin Roscoe in an equally revelatory account of Messiaen’s other great religious piano cycle, this time for two pianos, the Visions de l’Amen, composed a year before Vingt Regards in 1943. Their combination of emotional power, religious austerity, keyboard colour and dazzling pyrotechnics makes for an overwhelming and physically exhilarating experience. The listener is given an insight to what it must have been like to have heard the premiere of this work, played by Messiaen with his future wife, the immensly gifted 19-year-old Yvonne Loriod, to a strictly invited audience in Occupied Paris.

Steven Osborne plays three solo pieces to complete the disc. The Rondeau was composed at the same time as Visions de l’Amen, but is much less musically (although no less technically) ambitious. The other two pieces were composed in the 1930s, one in a more light-hearted vein, the other a contribution to a memorial volume for Paul Dukas, who died in 1935. ---hyperion-records.co.uk

Steven Osborne continues his enthralling performances of Messiaen's piano works, with Martin Roscoe joining him for the two-piano Visions de l'Amen. The two of them are flawlessly matched in their strength, control, and range of expression, even though for much of the work the two piano parts are largely independent. They move together from twinkling, distant starlight passages to powerful, brilliant solar flare-like passages. Osborne and Roscoe, although painting large pictures in the seven movements, demand that attention be paid to the details in the music. The "Amen du désir" has such a soft, quiet opening, it brings to mind the watercolors of Debussy's music, and later in the same movement the percussion of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring is also present. It's an engrossing performance of an engrossing piece. Three small, solo pieces of Messiaen's fill out the disc. The Pièce pour le tombeau de Paul Dukas is solemn, but not somber until the end, and Osborne gives its block chords a monumental weightiness, suggesting a double entendre in the title. The Rondeau is less complex and far-reaching than Messiaen's larger works, but still has that visionary wonder and joy. The final Fantaisie burlesque has interesting episodes, but the humorous, jazzy refrain gets old fast, despite Osborne's trying to keep it light. ---Patsy Morita, AllMusic Review

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Quatuor pour la fin du temps for violin, cello and piano: 
1. Liturgie de crystal
2. Vocalise, pour l'Ange qui annonce la fin du temps 
3. Abime des oiseaux 
4. Intermede 
5. Loouange a l'eternite de Jesus 
6. Danse de la fureur, pour les sept trompettes 
7. Foullis d'arcs-en-ciel, pour l'Ange qui annonce la fin du temps 
8. Louange a l'immortalite de Jesus. 

Vera Beths – violin
Anner Bylsma – cello
George Pieterson – clarinet
Reinbert de Leeuw - piano

Et Exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum for wind orchestra and metallic percussion: 
9. Des profondeurs de l'abime je crie vers toi, Seigneur: Ecoute ma voix! 
10. Le Christ, ressuscite des morts, ne meurt plus 
11. L'heure vient ou les morts entendront la voix du Fils de Dieu... 
12. Ils ressusciteront, glorieux, avec un nom nouveau 1
13. Et j'entendis la voix d'une foule immense... 

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Bernard Haitink - conductor

This work is one of the most significant and famous chamber music compositions of the twentieth century. In his early thirties, Messiaen was already known as one of the most brilliant and individual young French composers and organists. It was at Verdun that his army unit was captured during the German Army's lightning advance in 1940. Two members of Messiaen's company were also musicians: cellist Etienne Pasquier and clarinetist Henri Akoka. As the latter had his clarinet, Messiaen wrote a piece for him, which became the third movement of this quartet. The soldiers were transferred to Stalag VIII-A outside Görlitz, Silesia. Pasquier was assigned as a cook, enabling him to keep well fed and smuggle extra food to Messiaen. Messiaen met another musician, Jean Le Boulaire, a violinist who also had his instrument. Pasquier hoarded money he got by selling extra potatoes and was permitted to buy a cello from a local instrument maker. Messiaen wrote a trio for them, which became the fourth movement. Messiaen discovered a piano in a corner of a hut used as a church. He quickly wrote the quartet and the four musicians premiered it on January 15, 1941, before an audience of several thousand prisoners and the camp Kommandant and his staff. "Never was I listened to with such rapt attention and comprehension," Messiaen wrote. The keys to the piano were sticky, and the musicians had to overcome the cold, but Pasquier says it is not true -- as the composer remembered -- that he had only three strings on his cello, adding that it simply can't be played on fewer than the standard four. The quartet meant freedom for the players. The Germans thereafter listed them as musician-soldiers. The Wehrmacht's bureaucracy took this to mean they were noncombatant bandsmen, and released them back to France.

Messiaen, a devout Catholic, drew his title and musical imagery from Revelations 10:1-7, concerning the Angel that announces the end of time. It is thought that hunger resulted in kinesthesia, Messiaen's ability to see musical sounds as visual colors, and intensified his interest in bird calls. The eight movements are: "Liturgy of Crystal" (a blackbird's call surrounded by trills, translated to a "religious plane" as the harmonious silence of Heaven); "Vocalise for the Angel Who Announces the End of Time"; "Abyss of Birds" (where the eternity of birdcalls overcomes and Abyss of Time); "Interlude"; "Eulogy to the Eternity of Jesus" (featuring an "infinitely slow" and majestic cello solo); "Dance of Frenzy for the Seven Trumpets" (a remarkable movement written entirely in unison); "Tumult of Rainbows for the Angel Who Announces the End of Time"; and "Eulogy to the Immortality of Jesus," a timeless violin solo that ascends in register as Christ (and Mankind) ascend to the Father. --- Joseph Stevenson, Rovi

Messiaen's Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum (I Await the Resurrection of the Dead) is for an instrumental ensemble of 18 woodwinds, 16 brass, and a metallic percussion ensemble. The work was commissioned by André Malraux, the French Minister of Cultural Affairs. At Malraux's request, Et expecto received a private premiere in the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris before the public premiere in front of General de Gaulle in the Chartres Cathedral. The stained glass lining both cathedrals created a fitting aura in which to witness the work, although Messiaen also envisioned it being performed outdoors at the foot of mountain ranges, which he hoped would enhance the music's monumental, timeless, and natural imagery. Although Messiaen acknowledged the existence of death and suffering -- himself a prisoner of war in Silesia -- he refused Malraux's request to write a requiem commemorating the outbreak of the two World Wars and those who died. Instead, he wrote Et expecto to emphasize his belief in the Resurrection. In contrast to Chronochromie (1960), Messiaen's previous large-scale work which imagines a natural world of birds, mountains and motionless time, Et expecto looks ahead to a world that is to come.

The piece unfolds from five large, block-like sections, each relating to quotations from the Catholic Scriptures. The first begins with a monophonic prayer theme emerging from the lowest depths of the orchestra. The second section revolves around three motives: a six note, "lightning flash" -- the first four notes of which are related by retrograde to the prayer theme -- which is transformed into vertical chords, questions and answers heard in the woodwind duets, and a chorale led by the trumpets. The third section is also a three part structure. Here Messiaen used two bird songs, including the Amazonian uirapuru -- traditionally heard at the moment of death -- to symbolize Christ's inner voice waking the dead from their sleep; signaling an impending resurrection. The virtuosic singing of the calandra lark symbolizes celestial joy and the gift of agility. The bird songs are heard in the full ensemble of woodwinds, the ringing of the tubular bells, and then as massive orchestral chords. In the fourth section, the crashing of tam tams, heard in recurring cells of three strokes, represents the moment of resurrection as bells ring, trumpets chant, and the lark sounds from the woodwinds. In the final section, prayer melodies from the first section and a long sequence of colorful chords form the closing chorale. ---Rovi

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Part One 
1-1 	I - Le Désert 	4:29
1-2 	II - Les Orioles 	6:10
1-3 	III - Ce Qui Est Ecrit Sur Les Etoiles 	7:21
1-4 	IV - Le Cossyphe D'Heuglin 	4:26
1-5 	V - Cedar Breaks Et Le Don De Crainte 	8:24
Part Two 
1-6 	VI - Appel Interstellaire 	4:59
1-7 	VII - Bryce Canyon Et Les Rochers Rouge-Orange 	15:00
Part Three 
2-1 	VIII - Les Ressuscites Et Le Chant De E'Toile Aldebaran 	11:57
2-2 	IX - Le Moqueur Polyglotte 	11:18
2-3 	X - La Grive Des Bois 	4:33
2-4 	XI - Omao, Leiothrix, Elapaio, Shama 	9:52
2-5 	XII - Zion Park Et La Cité Céleste 	11:37

Tzimon Barto – piano
John Ryan – horn
Andrew Barclay – xylorimba
Erika Öhman - glockenspiel
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Christoph Eschenbach – conductor

Commissioned in 1971 by Alice Tully, Olivier Messiaen's Des canyons aux étoiles (From the canyons to the stars) was planned for the celebration of the bicentennial of the United States Declaration of Independence, though it was given its premiere performance in 1974. Messiaen found inspiration in Bryce Canyon in Utah, which he visited, and the music is an evocation of the vivid scenery and bird songs he encountered, though it should also be understood more broadly as a mystical hymn to nature, outer space, and heaven. In many ways, this large-scale, multi-movement work is reminiscent of Messiaen's Turangalîla-symphonie, though prominent in this score is a group of soloists playing horn, piano, xylorimba, and glockenspiel, which gives it the feeling of a concerto grosso updated for modern purposes. This live recording by Christoph Eschenbach and the London Philharmonic Orchestra offers extremely clear separation of parts and vivid sonorities, so everything is perfectly audible, though an opportunity was missed to present Des canyons aux étoiles in a multichannel recording, which it really needs. Even so, this exceptional stereo recording comes close to the audiophile ideal, and at many points, the positions of the soloists can be detected, thanks to the careful microphone placement. --- Blair Sanderson, AllMusic Review

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1. Méditation I 	8:52		
2. Méditation II 	10:13
3. Méditation III		2:32	
4. Méditation IV 	5:31
5. Méditation V		10:23	
6. Méditation VI 	7:55	
7. Méditation VII 	6:30	
8. Méditation VIII 	11:11	
9. Méditation IX 		10:31

Olivier Messiaen  -  Organ
Yvonne Loriod – Piano
ORTF Chamber Orchestra
Marcel Couraud - Conductor

Messiaen's Méditations have a particular theoretical importance, for the work marks the formalization of Messiaen's compositional language. Indeed, as organist Gillian Weir makes clear, for Messiaen, music was a kind of language, one that could be made equivalent to spoken language. At the time of the Méditations, Messiaen invented a system, a "communicable language" in which notes corresponded to individual letters of the alphabet, and specific motives were connected to certain verbs and nouns. This language makes its appearance in parts of the Méditations. Though not really comprehensible to the listener it is nonetheless important to note, for it exemplifies the composer's fascination with numbers and patterns and with the notion of communicating a universal message. The Méditations contain virtually all of the touchstones of Messiaen's compositional style, including the use of modes, plainsong, birdsong, Hindu and Greek rhythms, careful coloration, and the religious symbolism of the number three, resulting in the work's nine-movement structure. The work is concerned thematically with the Trinity, and in exploring this theme Messiaen juxtaposes unaltered Gregorian chant melodies and moments of suspended time with virtuosic, jubilant, rhythmically vivacious passages. --- Alexander Carpenter, Rovi

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I. Liturgie de cristal
II. Vocalise pour l'ange qui annonce la fin du temps
III. Abime des oiseaux
IV. Intermede
V. Louange a l'eternite de Jesus
VI. Danse de la fureur
VII. Fouillis d'arcs-en-ciel
VIII. Louange a l'immortalite de Jesus

Gil Shaham - violin
Paul Meyer - clarinet
Jian Wang - cello
Myung-Whun Chung - piano

Olivier Messiaen's Quartet for the end of time is probably better known for its origins, the story of its first performance and its magnificent title than it is as a piece of music. Like, for instance, Joyce's Ulysses - known of and spoken of with respect but seldom actually read. The history of the Quartet's gestation and events surrounding the work is worth repeating. In June 1940, the conscripted Messiaen was taken prisoner by the Germans and sent to a camp in Silesia, and it was there he wrote the work. Initially the only instrument in the camp was a clarinet, then a violin followed, a piano with sticky keys appeared and following a collection by fellow prisoners enough was raised to buy a cello from the nearby town. The quartet was first performed in a crowded prison hut in January 1941.

Fortunately Messiaen had first-rate players available. A transcript of an interview with the cellist, Etienne Pasquier, is included with the disc and it makes fascinating reading. He tells how Messiaen wrote a piece for the clarinettist (a member of the French National Orchestra) who insisted the piece was too hard but received no sympathy from the composer - the piece eventually became the third movement of the Quartet. He (the cellist) insists his instrument did not have just three strings as Messiaen apparently liked to claim - '"a piece as difficult as this could not be played on just three strings. It was Messiaen's way of pointing out the inadequacies at this first performance". Subsequently the four performers were sent back to France by the Germans - "As musicians you had no guns" quoted from a German officer. This was preferential treatment as many of their fellow prisoners spent several more years in captivity.

Whatever the circumstances of its birth - perhaps they helped - the work is a deeply felt, intense piece from a man whose Catholic faith was strong and unwavering. He chose as his theme for the Quartet an extract from the Revelations and their foretelling of the writer's (St.John) vision of the Day of Judgement and its reference to "mighty angels". The work has eight sections - the number is not a random choice but was based upon the six days of the creation, the Sabbath followed by eternity.

The other staple of Messiaen's music was his use of birdsong - here in the opening Section Liturgie de cristal with the clarinet as a blackbird and added trills from the other performers representing daybreak and the birds awakening. Two short ensemble passages, with loud prominent piano chords open and close the second movement and frame a middle section of gently repeated phrases by the piano against hushed strings. Abyss of the birds, a clarinet solo beginning in contemplative, wistful mood then switches to chirpy birdsong to contrast joy with the weariness of time before returning to its melancholy.

A brief scherzo-like interlude leads to the Fifth Section Eulogy to the Eternity of Jesus. The slow, lingering cello part, full of sustained notes (John Tavener comes quickly to mind ) and sparse piano writing make an intense, powerful statement in this longest part of the work. Unison playing dominates the Dance of Frenzy, for the seven trumpets and the appearances of the Angel in section seven is in the form of violent interjections into dreamy violin and piano duets. The closing Eulogy is not unlike the cello writing in the fifth movement - here changed to piano supporting the violin in a long lined melody.

This is a piece that does not give up its secrets easily, the listener must work hard but the end result is worth it. The performance and recording are first class and the issue is well worth investigating. --- Harry Downey, musicweb-international.com

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Disc: 1 
1. I. Regard du Père 
2. II. Regard de l'étoile
3. III. L'échange
4. IV. Regard de la Vierge
5. V. Regard du Fils sur le Fils
6. VI. Par Lui tout a été fait
7. VII. Regard de la Croix
8. VIII. Regard des hauteurs
9. IX. Regard du temps
10. X. Regard de l'Esprit de joie
11. XI. Première communion de la Vierge

Disc: 2 
1. XII. La parole toute-puissante 
2. XIII. Noêl 
3. XIV. Regard des Anges 
4. XV. Le baiser de l'Enfant-Jésus 
5. XVI. Regard des prophètes, des bergers et des Mages 
6. XVII. Regard du silence
7. XVIII. Regard de l'Onction terrible 
8. XIX. Je dors, mais mon cœur veille
9. XX. Regard de l'Élise d'amour

Hakon Austbo - piano

Please let this CD grow on you. At first hearing, and even several subsequent ones, the gentle playing of Norwegian pianist Håkon Austbø, winner of many music awards and prizes and a professor at the Amsterdam conservatory, seems a little too relaxed, almost like a neophyte concert-performer who’s learnt to overcome extreme nerves by some sort of auto-suggestion. If you’re familiar with other reference recordings like Aimard’s (on Teldec 26868) and Osborne (Hyperion, CDA67351/2), then you may find Austbø understated one at first, dour, cold almost.

In fact the opposite is true. Austbø, who is engaged in such ambitious projects as recording the complete Debussy piano music (for Simax; indeed the present release forms part of Naxos’ own complete Messiaen piano cycle), approaches the Vingt regards from a position of strength, not timidity. After working your way through the music a few times, you’ll start to realise that the way he scales the heights of, say, ‘Par lui tout a été fait’ (VI) is the result more of an almost detached introversion and reverence for the music, than any lack of confidence.

The Vingt regards is music central to the composer’s mystical form of Christianity … reverential, full of awe, meditative and passionate. Written towards the end of the second world war in Nazi-occupied Paris, the twenty separate pieces range in length from two and a half to eleven minutes and are connected as much by musical virtuosity - extremes of tempo, harmony and mathematically-inspired effects - as doctrine. It is indeed the totality – in the end, the wholeness of tonal integrities – that makes the impact, not the pyrotechnics of any one ‘regard’.

By the end of the sublime ‘Le baiser de l’enfant Jésu’, a tender translation of spiritual devotion into melodic atmosphere has been almost perfectly achieved where it counts most – in your head. It takes an empathy with the composer’s intentions to achieve that. Austbø has it. He is able to make the music stand still on its axis, so to speak, without slowing it down – by playing each phrase in such a way that, although the next does not follow immediately, your anticipation fills the pause.

There are times when the actual sound of the piano, particularly when Austbø is enthusiastic about some of Messiaen’s characteristic chords, verges on the harsh with little left in reserve dynamically. This is not true in the case of perhaps the most serious contenders for first choice, Loriod on the Warner Classics (62162) ‘Messiaen Edition’ and Serkin (Rca Victor Red Seal, 62316). But then see how Austbø’s confidence (which is definitely not bravado) brings ‘Regard des hauteurs’ to light with a delicacy that never veers into tentativeness or becomes twee, which can happen if interpreters try to over-colour Messiaen’s tones. ---Mark Sealey, musicweb-international.com

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Disc 1
Turangalila-symphonie
1.   		I. Introduction 00:06:40
2.   		II. Chant d' amour 1 00:08:30
3.   		III Turangalila 1 00:05:21
4.   		IV. Chant d' amour 2 00:11:32
5.   		V. Joie du sang des etoiles 00:06:19
6.   		VI. Jardin du sommeil 00:12:29
7.   		VII. Turangalila 2 00:04:01

Disc 2
Turangalila-symphonie
1.   		VIII. Developpement de l'Amour 00:12:02
2.   		IX. Turangalila 3 00:05:22
3.   		X. Final 00:08:32

L'ascension
4.   		I. Majeste du Christ demandant sa gloire a son Pere 00:05:38
5.   		II. Alleluias sereins d'une ame qui desire le ciel 00:06:09
6.   		III. Alleluia sur la trompette, Alleluia sur la cymbale 00:05:48
7.   		IV. Priere du Christ montant vers son Pere 00:08:59

François Weigel – piano
Polish Radio Orchestra & Chorus Katowice
Antoni Wit – conductor

If you don't already own a copy of Messiaen's epic, weird, and beautiful Turangalîla Symphony, here's your chance. And if you already own a copy, pick up this CD, anyway--you'll love it. Conductor Antoni Wit and the Polish National Radio Symphony deliver an awe-inspiring reading of the complex work, showcasing all the drama, tonal colors, and spiky rhythms the Turangalîla demands. Messiaen's 10-movement work is a grab bag of musical themes from throughout the composer's career; you'll find elements of birdsong, Eastern mysticism, a gorgeous "love theme," and serialism in this epic composition. With this much going on, it's no wonder that few ensembles (however famous) get it right. But Wit and company do get it right, letting the masterpiece's multiple themes (statue, love, flower, chord) all unfold dramatically, with great playing all around. Naxos's sonics are remarkable as well, capturing the magnitude of the 100-piece orchestra and providing a rich balance during the tricky passages for ondes martenot (a sort of glorified theremin). As a bonus on this budget priced, two-CD set, we get L'ascension, an earlier work from Messiaen but one that's just as interesting. Here, intense rhythms are replaced by lush symphonic passages, but the playing is just as splendid. Highly recommended. ---Jason Verlinde, amazon.com

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