Messiaen: Les Offrandes Oubliées

The fifth instalment in Orfeo's Michael Gielen / ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra series. What makes Olivier Messiaen's œuvre so special is largely his ability to coalesce various influences, inspirations and convictions into a wholly individual and perfectly coherent musical language. This includes the development of modal harmonies from earlier centuries and engagement with rhythms from non-European traditions. The wealth of colour in Messiaen's works stems in part from his synaesthetic ability to perceive chords as various shapes and colours. As an enthusiastic ornithologist, he spent much time in nature, notating bird songs and then working them in stylized form into his compositions. But most importantly, Messiaen's work is governed by his profound faith. He once said that he didn't primarily see himself as a composer but as an "ornithologist and rhythmist."

Recorded in 1991 and 1996, remastered from original ORF archive tapes.