Messiaen: Catalogue d'oiseaux Books 1-7

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Few are better acquainted [with the Catalogue] than Pierre-Laurent Aimard, and this set is clearly a long-pondered act of love…Needless to say, Aimard possesses the necessary dazzling virtuosity,... — BBC Music Magazine, June 2018, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 30th Mar 2018
Catalogue No: PTC5186670
Label: Pentatone
Length: 2 hours 32 minutes

Gramophone Magazine

April 2018

Editor's Choice
Gramophone Awards

2018

Finalist - Instrumental
Presto Recordings of the Year

Finalist 2018
The Times Records of the Year

2018
The Guardian Classical Albums of the Year

2018
Limelight Magazine Recordings of the Year

2018

Nominated - Instrumental

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Messiaen: Catalogue d’oiseaux, I / 42

Work length2:32:42

Album only

Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano)
Recorded: August 2017
Recording Venue: Saal 1, Funkhaus, Nalepastrasse, Berlin

No. 1, Le chocard des alpes

Track length9:37

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

No. 2, Le loriot

Track length8:18

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

No. 3, Le merle bleu

Track length13:10

$3.00

$3.85

$5.25

No. 4, Le traquet stapazin

Track length14:15

$3.00

$3.85

$5.25

No. 5, La chouette hulotte

Track length8:04

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

No. 6, L’alouette lulu

Track length6:47

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

No. 7, La rousserolle effarvatte

Track length31:37

Album only

No. 8, L’alouette calandrelle

Track length5:20

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

No. 9, La bouscarle

Track length10:39

$3.00

$3.85

$5.25

No. 10, Le merle de roche

Track length17:43

$4.00

$5.15

$7.00

No. 11, La buse variable

Track length9:55

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

No. 12, Le traquet rieur

Track length8:02

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

No. 13, Le courlis cendré

Track length9:15

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

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Interview, Pierre-Laurent Aimard on Messiaen's birds

24th May 2018

The French pianist talks to Katherine about his relationship with Catalogue d'oiseaux, which he recently recorded for Pentatone.

Renowned French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard kicks off his exclusive engagement to PENTATONE with a recording of Olivier Messiaen's Catalogue d'Oiseaux (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 Aimard's first recording of Messiaen's most extensive, demanding and colourful piano composition. The luxurious CD box set contains an accompanying bonus DVD, on which Aimard shares his vast knowledge of and love for Messiaen's work from behind the piano.

Due to its radical naturalism, the Catalogue d'Oiseaux 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 Messiaen's conception of the Catalogue d'Oiseaux, 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."

Reviews

June 2018

Few are better acquainted [with the Catalogue] than Pierre-Laurent Aimard, and this set is clearly a long-pondered act of love…Needless to say, Aimard possesses the necessary dazzling virtuosity, but also the exceptionally broad palette of colour and timbral precision. In his hands, the opening of the gorgeous nocturne ‘L’Alouette lulu’ is a masterclass in balance.

April 2018

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…Not a single sound emerges with indifference.

1st April 2018

The 13 pieces could hardly be realised better than by Aimard.

12th April 2018

As Aimard demonstrates vividly, the Catalogue is one of the greatest, and most original, of all 20th-century keyboard works...There’s a virtuosic fierceness to some of the writing...The recordings capture all that dexterity, and every nuance of the wonderfully varied keyboard colour that Aimard brings to the piano writing.

Classics Today

As the set reveals time and again, Aimard has long digested and internalized Messiaen’s colorful keyboard syntax. The pianist voices and balances extended sequences of chords with the utmost clarity and specificity. Minute variations in rhythmic asymmetry are scrupulously articulated, while Aimard never shortchanges the music’s frequent moments of silence. He also brings impressive timbral and characterful variety to low-register passagework that can sound muddy or indistinct in the wrong hands. Cases in point include Messiaen’s playful evocation of mating mallards in Le Merle de roche’s opening pages, and Le Loriot’s slow-motion chords that contrast with lively high-register dialogues depicting Garden Warblers.

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Interview, Pierre-Laurent Aimard on Messiaen's birds

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