Pierre Laurent Aimard Messiaen: Catalogue D'oiseaux (2018)

Olivier Messiaen's Catalogue d'Oiseaux, or Catalogue of Birds, is one of the most ambitious works of the modern era, at least in terms of its sheer length and complexity. It comprises 13 pieces, one of which, La Rousserolle Effarvatte (The Reed Warbler), takes up the entire second CD of this three-disc set. The music evokes not only birdsong but the appearance of birds, their behavior at various times of year, and even their characteristic habitat in France, all the while holding to a brutal level of technical challenges and to his own serialist-influenced tonal idiom.