László Borbély Olivier Messiaen: Catalogue D'oiseaux (2020)

Everything is real. Olivier Messiaen’s piano cycle, Catalogue d'oiseaux (Catalogue of Birds), besides being one of the monumental creations of modern music, is one of the greatest 'cathedrals' among works ever composed for the piano (or any keyboard instrument).

"Whether it is necessary, or even right, to follow conventions (the beaten track) when recording music, for example, or whether the performer can claim the right to show the listener the world he lives in, the world he knows best, with all its beauty and its countless oddities, even risks? Should he let the listener into his own territory, that is, into a strange and individual dimension that the audience may not have known existed until now? Nowadays, a carefully crafted recording gives the listener the illusion of a world believed to be flawless, a care that is fundamentally designed to cater to the perfectionism of the audience. A 'different' kind of care is therefore needed, one that can breathe life into even a recording. Our intention in making this record was therefore to create the most natural, realistically transcendent material possible, capable of speaking to the audience." (Szabolcs Szilágyi)