Messiaen: Complete Piano Works

Featuring

Ciro Longobardi
Olivier Messiaen

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Composer's Artistic Vision

Messiaen considered birds to be 'God's musicians' and extensively incorporated birdsong into his compositions.

Compositional Technique

Messiaen's 'Mode de valeurs et d'intensités' is historically significant as the first piece to feature total predetermination of compositional elements, including 36 notes, 24 durations, 12 attacks, and 7 dynamics.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Olivier Messiaen, the composer, was inspired by three kinds of love: sacred love, profane love, and love of nature.

Performer Biography

Ciro Longobardi gave the first Italian performance of Messiaen's complete piano works in five concerts between 2020 and 2022.

Compositional Technique

Messiaen experienced a form of psychological synaesthesia, seeing colors inwardly when he heard or read music, and sometimes indicated these correspondences in his scores.

Performer Biography

Ciro Longobardi, the pianist on this album, won the Abbiati Prize, Italy's most important critics award, for his 2019 recording of Messiaen's complete Catalogue d'Oiseaux.

Compositional Technique

Messiaen believed rhythm was the primordial and essential part of music, existing before melody and harmony, and preferred rhythmic music that scorned repetition and equal divisions.