From Catalogue d'oiseaux
Le Courlis cendre
Le Traquet stapazin

What an odd collection of music! This reminds me of Debussy + Ravel + Bartok + Caby....however it is a little too modern for my taste. But nevertheless, you always play very well. When was this recorded?

Olivier Messiaen's works are not simple to understand an play, however I done my best to understand him, I record this pieces in 1989

Messiaen was fascinated by birdsong, and birds had made appearances in several of his earlier works (for example La Nativité, Quatuor and Vingt regards). Messiaen incorporated birdsong into all of his compositions, and indeed he composed several works for which birds provide the title and subject matter as the collection of thirteen pieces for piano Catalogue d'oiseaux completed in 1958 which your submissions are 2 recordings from.

I cannot really evalute these recordings as my experience is limited with Messiaen but your playing sounds solid as usual so I cannot think anything else than this is a very good performance as you are very careful about your interpretations.

The recordings are up on the site.

Thank you Robert for adding Olivier Messiaen's music,

From my music library some information about Olivier Messiaen's music style.

In style, Messiaen's music is highly individualistic and geared toward expressing the themes with which he works. For example, his works have a freedom and flexibility seldom encountered in music because he does not adhere to standard demarcations of measures or maintenance of rigid tempos. As a result, his music seems to have a timelessness and continuity seldom encountered in other music. Individual movements sometimes seem to have neither beginning nor end, but simply to exist indefinitely. He uses complex polymodal and polyrhythmic patterns to delineate intricate ideas. Color is another important part of Messiaen's music. Messiaen's piano music emphasizes "tone clusters," which sound like splashes or bursts of sound. (There's a piece of popular music by "Country Joe and the Fish," called Colors for Susan, that uses a similar technique.)

It's very difficult to play his piano pieces.