Messiaen: Catalogue D’Oiseaux, Oiseaux Exotiques – Yvonne Loriod

A visionary composer, Olivier Messiaen profoundly transformed the history of contemporary music by making birdsong one of the essential sources of his musical language. Fascinated by the rhythms of nature, he devoted some of his most innovative works to birds. This anthology brings together the historic recordings of the Catalogue d’oiseaux, made in 1959 with Yvonne Loriod, the composer’s favored interpreter and muse. A monumental work for piano of the twentieth century, this vast sonic fresco translates into music the landscapes, light, and birdsongs observed throughout France. The box set is complemented by Oiseaux exotiques (1956), a brilliant orchestral work conducted by Rudolf Albert under Messiaen’s artistic supervision, as well as by the deeply moving Quartet for the End of Time, recorded in 1957 with the composer at the piano. In this major twentieth-century work, written while in captivity during the war, birdsong becomes a symbol of freedom, spirituality, and eternity.