Ludovic Morlot and the Seattle Symphony present passionate performances of two rarely recorded masterpieces by Morlot's countryman, French composer Olivier Messiaen. One work celebrates Messiaen’s love for his wife, the other his commitment to his faith. Together they make up an album of sacred and transcendent beauty, showing the two sides of one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. A quarter-century since his passing, Olivier Messiaen stands securely among the major French composers of the 20th century. From a broader perspective, he was one of the most original musicians of any period, the creator of a singular and often astonishing body of work. Adhering to none of the modernist styles or movements in vogue during his lifetime, Messiaen followed his own sensibilities throughout his career, forging a unique musical language out of bird calls, scales and chords of his own invention, rhythms derived from an ancient Hindu treatise, numerical symbols, and a strongly felt affinity between sound and color. The Seattle Symphony is one of America’s leading symphony orchestras and is internationally acclaimed for its innovative programming and extensive recording history. Under the leadership of Music Director Ludovic Morlot since September 2011, the Symphony is heard from September through July by more than 500,000 people through live performances and radio broadcasts. It performs in one of the finest modern concert halls in the world- the acoustically superb Benaroya Hall- in downtown Seattle. Its extensive education and community engagement programs reach over 65,000 children and adults each year. The Seattle Symphony has a deep commitment to new music, commissioning many works by living composers each season. The orchestra has made nearly 150 recordings and has received three Grammy Awards, 23 Grammy nominations, two Emmy Awards and numerous other accolades. In 2014 the Symphony launched its in-house recording label, Seattle Symphony Media.

The Sanskrit word "Turangalîla" roughly means "dynamism" and "vitality" - Olivier Messiaen, expert on Indian rhythms, gave this gigantic opus this title and christened it "Hymn to Joy". The Nationaltheater-Orchester Mannheim is dedicated to this exuberance with general music director Alexander Soddy, who brings over a hundred musicians to the stage: among them the Turangalîla interpreters Tamara Stefanovich and Thomas Bloch. Crazy tempos, rhythms, keys: Messiaen's “love song” is a Dionysian sound frenzy that is second to none. A production by the Musikalische Akademie des Nationaltheater-Orchester Mannheim e.V. in cooperation with the Nationaltheater Mannheim.

Before he was thirty, Olivier Messiaen had written the work that established his worldwide reputation asa visionary composer for the organ, La Nativité du Seigneur (The Birth of the Saviour). A synthesis of hisinnovatory compositional style, it is rich in colourful harmonies and precisely noted but flexible rhythms,many derived from Hindu tâlas and from the metre of Gregorian chant. This musical commentary on theChristmas story is divided into nine movements evoking timeless grace, beauty, radiance, exhilaration,and majesty. Tom Winpenny is Assistant Master of the Music at St Albans Cathedral, the oldest site ofcontinuous Christian worship in Britain.

Harawi is a cycle of twelve songs scored for soprano and piano composed in 1945. Harawi (known to Spanish speakers as yarav�) designates a song about a fated love that ends in the death of both lovers. Messiaen remarked that "it is the story of Tristan and Isolde." The surrealistic text of Harawi is Messiaen's own. Using the musical structures Messiaen had created for Harawi, he built massive phrases in these songs, expanding space and time, creating extreme tenderness, vastness, clarity and abysses. In Harawi both lovers are not only human, but beings, which transform again and again. Destruction, pain, death, creation, joy, dance and love are not final - they are all everchanging particles of our interwoven cosmic existence. Already chosen as ONE OF THE BEST RELEASES OF 2019 (from a pre-release review copy) by Lynn Ren� Bayley of Art Music Lounge: "This stunning album... features the still-young and somewhat outr� German soprano Sarah Maria Sun... From the first notes of La ville qui dormait to the dying piano sound in Dans le noir, this is a performance that will absolutely rivet you... This clearly goes straight to the top of performances of this unusual and somewhat difficult song cycle..." Sarah Maria Sun is one of the foremost singers in the contemporary music scene with a repertoire of more than 900 compositions from the 20th & 21st centuries, including more than 320 world premieres. She was nominated for singer of the year by Opernwelt in 2017 for her role as Elsa in Sciarrino's monodrama Lohengrin and as Gwen in 4.48 Psychosis by Philip Venables. From 2007-2014, she was first soprano of the Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, a chamber ensemble of 7 singers that has been one of the world's leading pioneers of contemporary music for 30 years.

Olivier Messiaen’s Meditations sur le Mystere de la Sainte Trinite grew out of improvisations that he performed at the inauguration of the rebuilt organ of La Trinite in 1967. It became his largest cycle to date and marks Messiaen’s first use of ‘communicable language,’ in which each letter of the alphabet is assigned a unique pitch and note value, thereby translating text into music. Haunting harmonies, awe-inspiring monumental grandeur and the deepest profundity of expression are contrasted by the innocence of birdsong with the recurrent call of the yellowhammer, a tranquil voice from nature amid kaleidoscopic Biblical themes.

Olivier Messiaen was a towering figure in twentieth-century music, and for many years he considered Les Corps glorieux the favorite of his own works. It is recognized as the pinnacle of his pre-war organ compositions, vividly depicting the themes of resurrection through deeply expressive symbolism, life and death struggles and ecstatic joy. Ten years later the Messe de la Pentecote marked a departure in style, drawing on Messiaen’s liturgical improvisations and crystallizing his latest rhythmic and serial techniques and use of birdsong into a ground-breaking masterpiece. Organist Tom Winpenny is Assistant Master of the Music at St. Albans Cathedral, where he accompanies the daily choral services and directs the Abbey Girls Choir. Previously, he served as sub-organist at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London. He is also musical director of the London Pro Arte Choir. He has broadcast frequently on BBC Radio and featured on American Public Media’s Pipedreams. He was organ scholar at King’s College, Cambridge, graduating with a music degree, and twice accompanying the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, broadcast worldwide. As a soloist, he has performed in the USA, Europe, and throughout Britain. His wide-ranging discography includes music by Mozart, Liszt, John McCabe, and John Joubert.

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Marking the centenary of his birth, this 17-CD box celebrates the long life and passionate, exotic music of this treasured French composer (who was also one of the greatest organists and pianists of his time). His rich romanticism and rhythmically complex creations depict what he called "the marvelous aspects of the faith" (he was a devout Roman Catholic); the artists here who tackle his complete organ works, piano works and songs include Willem Tanke, Peter Hill, Ingrid Kappelle and Hakon Austbo. Festivals worldwide are currently honoring Messiaen's legacy; join them as you hear L'Ascension; La Nativite Du Seigneur; Les Corps Glorieux; Livre D'Orgue; Messe de la Pentecote; Meditations Sur Le Mystere de la Sainte Trinite; Livre Du Saint Sacrement; Petites Esquisses D'Oiseaux; Visions de L'Amen; Harawi Chants D'Amour Et de la Mort; Chants de Terre Et de Ciel; Poems Pour Mi Premier Livre, and more!

Ten years after writing ‘Les Corps glorieux’ Olivier Messiaen developed a plan to compose a Book of Rhythmic Studies for the organ. This resulted in two distinct works of which ‘Livre d’orgue’ proved to be an anthology representative of his compositional thinking at the time. It runs the gamut of rhythms, tone colors and sonorities, ranging from extreme delicacy to the most powerful vehemence, and includes new modes, complex Hindu rhythms, and an aviary of birdsong. The test piece ‘Verset pour la fete de la Dedicace’ offers a more serene vision in its own essay in birdsong. Tom Winpenny is Assistant Master of the Music at St. Alban’s Cathedral, where he accompanies the daily choral services and directs the Abbey Girls’ Choir. Previously, he served as sub-organist at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London. He is also musical director of the London Pro Arte Choir. Winpenny has broadcast frequently on BBC Radio and featured on American Public Media’s pipedreams. He was organ scholar at King’s College, Cambridge, graduating with a music degree, and twice accompanying the festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, broadcast worldwide.

The organ compositions of Olivier Messiaen firmly established the composer as a figure of 20th century music. This release features his well-known works L’Ascension and Le banquet celeste, along with two pieces which were discovered posthumously in 1997, Offrande au Saint-Sacrement, and Prelude. Organist Tom Winpenny does an outstanding job in these performances, which were recorded at the organ at St. Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh, Scotland.

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 colorful piano composition. The luxurious release set contains an accompanying bonus film, 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 neighbors 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:

Unsurprisingly, Pierre-Laurent 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. Nigel Simeone’s essay for Pentatone is exceptionally informative on factual background. One can only salute this outstanding achievement.

– Gramophone (Editor's Choice, April 2018)

Pierre-Laurent Aimard’s long association with Olivier Messiaen’s music dates back to the early 1970s, when the teenaged pianist was a protégée of both the composer and his wife Yvonne Loriod. His 2000 recording of Vingt regards sur l’enfant Jésus has long held sway as a version of reference. In August 2017 Aimard set down the complete Catalogue d’Oiseaux, now released by Pentatone on three SACDS, accompanied by informative booklet notes by Nigel Simone and a valuable DVD where Aimard presents succinct overviews of each piece from the piano and offers interesting insights into Messiaen’s methodology and personality.

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.

Le Rousserolle Effarvatte, the cycle’s epicenter and longest movement, emerges as a dramatic and virtuoso tour-de-force, showcasing Aimard’s remarkable concentration throughout sustained contemplative passages, along with his sophisticated gradations in dynamics and touch that seemingly project the gnarly, tumultuous sequences in three-dimensional perspective. To be sure, the pianist’s fortissimos convey an edgy, even metallic patina (so do Yvonne Loriod’s, in fairness), and his occasional vocal grimaces distract. Moreover, there sometimes is more humor to the music than Aimard is willing to concede.

Aimard’s technical, stylistic, and musical authority build upon Loriod’s interpretive legacy, and set modern-day standards that will both inspire and intimidate future generations of Messiaen pianists.

– ClassicsToday (Jed Distler)

In 2008, Carolin Widmann, Jörg Widmann, Nicolas Altstaedt and Alexander Lonquich performed Olivier Messiaen's Quartet for the end of time for violin, clarinet, cello and piano with the seriousness of spirit and subtle understatement that the work requires. Composed in 1940 in a German prisoner-of-war camp, Messiaen here reached a pinnacle of his composing career at the age of just 31. In this work he conveys to his listeners his spiritual interpretation of (musical) time and plays of colour. With these four exceptional chamber musicians, all masters of their art, the Salzburg Festival was treated to an exemplary performance of this work.

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The “Livre du Saint Sacrement” is a summation of Messiaen’s musical and theological persona, a statement of faith and a profound summary of his entire organ “oeuvres.” In this work he employs the significant compositional techniques of his life’s work as an organ composer: modes of limited transposition as the basis for his harmonies, Hindu rhythms, Greek rhythms, plainsong, birdsong, “communicable language,” and serialism. As always these compositional elements are used to explore the mysteries of Christian faith, in this, his most massive work. Born in Avignon to Pierre Messiaen, a Shakespeare scholar, and the poet Cecile Sauvage, Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) exhibited a rare musical talent from an early age. He was admitted to the Paris Conservatory at age eleven, where he won five First Prizes- notably in classes with Marcel Dupre, Maurice Emmanuel, and Paul Dukas. In 1930, he was appointed Organiste Titulaire of Sainte Trinite Church in Paris, a position he held until the early 1970s. At the outbreak of WWII, he became a French army hospital attendance, and in 1941 was taken prisoner and held in a POW camp in Silesia (where he composed Quartet for the End of Time). Upon his repatriation in 1942, he was appointed professor of harmony at the Paris Conservatory. During his lifetime, Messiaen was famed as an organist and pianist and frequently performed his own difficult compositions in concerts around the world. Colin Andrews is an internationally famous concert artist, with extensive experience in the music of Messiaen. One of only four organists to have recorded Messiaen’s complete organ works, Andrews was recently named “Membre d’Honneur” of the Association Grand Orgue Trinite Messiaen, based at Messiaen’s church in Paris.

Olivier Messiaen's two-hour, 20-movement piano solo cycle on the Observations of the Child Jesus was written in 1944 after the 'Quatuor pour la fin tu temps' and the 'Visions de l'Amen‘ for 2 pianos and has established itself as one of the most significant piano works of the 20th century. Great pianists such as Anton Batagov and Martin Helmchen have documented outstanding performances of this extremely versatile cycle of musical offerings on recordings. Pi-hsien Chen recorded Messiaen's magnum opus for piano live for the West German Radio (WDR) in Cologne in 2005, which impressively testifies to her exceptional status in the contemporary repertoire. Her Schonberg, Boulez, Barraque, Stockhausen and Cage recordings are of almost intimidating sovereignty, flawless pianistic brilliance and sublime structural clarity, and thus at least as legendary as her playing of Bach, Scarlatti, Mozart, Beethoven or Schubert. Born in Taiwan, the pianist has lived in Cologne since the age of nine and is praised by colleagues and the press for the sensual objectivity of her performances. After the 3-album-release with Schubert's 'Grandes Sonates', Aldila Records now presents her live cycle 'Vingt regards sur l'Enfant-Jesus', which is performed here with compelling authenticity and mastery. A living icon of modernity performs an immortal icon of modernity.

The pieces in this recording belong to Messiaen's first compositional period, from the 1940s to the early 1950s. The music of O. Messiaen had a major influence on the Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu (Tokyo, 1930 ibid., 1996). Raised in militaristic Japan during the Second World War (at just 14 years old, in anticipation of an American invasion, he was drafted into the Japanese army), Takemitsu initially had a sort of rejection of the culture and philosophy of his own country and instead showed great interest in the various musical trends of the Western avant-gardes, especially French. The pieces in this recording cover a compositional span of about fifty years.

La Nativit� du Seigneur, neuf m�ditations pour orgue (The Nativity of the Lord, nine meditations for organ or The Birth of the Saviour) is a testament to Olivier Messiaen's Roman Catholic faith, being divided into nine "meditations" inspired by the birth of Jesus. As the composer notes in his preface, he sought "the emotion and sincerity first". The work was written by the composer at the age of 26 years during the summer of 1935 while he was in residence at Grenoble near the French Alps. Messiaen wrote that in addition to theology, the movements were inspired by the mountains, as well as the stained glass windows in medieval cathedrals. The work's premiere on 27 February 1936 on the organ of La Trinit�, Paris, where Messiaen was titular organist; had the work split among three players: Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur (1-3), Jean Langlais (4-6), and Jean-Jacques Grunenwald (7-9). The American organist Mark Steinbach (Brown University, Providence) travelled through France in the summer of 2022 to find the most suitable organ for the recording of this cycle: he found it in Lyon. The Cavaill�-Coll instrument there is similar in size and character to the Cavaill�-Coll organ Messiaen had at his disposal in the 1930s in the Eglise de la Trinit� in Paris. This allows the music to be presented with the greatest possible authenticity. It is also, in our opinion, the first recording of Messiaen's organ works in surround sound.

Renowned pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard’s recording of Olivier Messiaen’s Catalogue d’Oiseaux created a sensation when first released on PENTATONE in 2018, and now returns to the market in an attractively priced stereo reissue./p>

Aimard had intimate ties to the composer himself and his wife, Yvonne Loriod, for whom Messiaen wrote the Catalogue, a grand hymn to nature from a man who never ceased to marvel at the stupefying beauty of landscapes or the magic of birdsong. 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. Thanks to Aimard’s ability to evoke this colourful opus, his interpretation has turned into an absolute reference recording.>/p>

This first release within Aimard’s exclusive partnership with PENTATONE received many accolades, including a Jahrespreis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik. Since then, recordings of Beethoven (2021), Bartók (2023, with San Francisco Symphony and Esa-Pekka Salonen), and Schubert (2024) have appeared on PENTATONE, as well as piano four hands albums with Tamara Stefanovich (Visions in 2022 and Nicolaou: Etudes & Frames in 2023).

Olivier Messiaen composed his eight-movement Quartet for the End of Time in 1940 while imprisoned in Germany. He drew his inspiration from the Apocalypse written by Saint John the Evangelist, one of the few works he was allowed to keep in the camp. Het Collectif explores this work, never forgetting that it was at the heart of this harsh winter of war, in a context of misfortune, confinement and deprivation, that Messiaen had an angel speak, promising paradise and the end of time... Stalag VIIIa, composed by Tristan Murail, whose title refers to Olivier Messiaen's place of detention in Görlitz in 1940, completes this programme.

Soprano Barbara Hannigan and pianist Bertrand Chamayou unite to record the vocal music of Olivier Messiaen, presenting his two major song cycles from the 1930's. Existing in both the sensual and sacred realms, the Poèmes pour Mi are inspired by the precious relationship of Messiaen and “Mi” - the nickname of his first wife; violinist and composer Claire Delbos. Chants de terre et de ciel also emerges from Messiaen's marriage to Delbos, written just after the birth of their son, Pascal. Both cycles oscillate between hypnotic meditation and ecstatic songs of love, supported by Messiaen's intense spiritual faith. Inspired by Messiaen's words, "It is a glistening music we seek...", Hannigan and Chamayou delve into the composer's complex language to reveal a natural and flowing music, whose roots extend from the earth upwards to a shimmering realm. As a final work on the album, Hannigan and Chamayou included a rarely performed "scena" of Messiaen: La Mort du nombre (1929) is a dialogue between two souls, in which they are joined by the Canadian tenor Charles Sy and the Norwegian violinist Vilde Frang.

Violinist Alena Baeva joins Alpha Classics for several recordings, starting with an album of chamber music with pianist Vadym Kholodenko, her favourite partner. Together they offer an eclectic and unusual programme of Schubert's fearsome and magnificent Fantasy for violin and piano, composed a year before his death… This is followed by Stravinsky's joyous and boisterous miniatures in a collection entitled Divertimento, proposed as an abridgement of the ballet Le Baiser de la fee (The Fairy's Kiss). Olivier Messiaen composed a Fantaisie for his first wife, the violinist Claire Delbos, but the work was not published until 2007. Die Marchenbilder by Schumann complete the programme. Initially a pupil at the Moscow Conservatory, Alena Baeva later left Russia and was taught by Shlomo Mintz, Mstislav Rostropovich, Boris Garlitsky and Seiji Ozawa. At just 16, she won the Grand Prize in the Henryk Wieniawski International Competition, and many other prizes followed. Alena Baeva plays the Guarneri del Gesù "ex-William Kroll" of 1738. Ukrainian pianist Vadym Kholodenko was awarded the Van Cliburn Gold Medal in 2013.

'A lush, intricate success - meaningful for Messiaen enthusiasts and enjoyable for those new to his work. I highly recommend it.' This review from Fanfare magazine is one of several in the international press to have recognised the achievement of Ciro Longobardi while in the midst of recording the complete piano music of Olivier Messiaen, in a cycle which is now issued complete for the first time, and at budget price. The piano music of Messiaen spans times and idioms ranging from the Debussyan Pr�ludes of 1928-9, written when the composer was barely out of his teens, through to the jewel-like Petites Esquisses d'Oiseaux from 1985-one of his last works before his death in 1992. While every bar of the music is distinctively and instantly 'Messiaen', that idiom evolved a good deal over the years, and came to a kind of peak as well as a crisis in the Catalogue d'Oiseaux from the late 1950s. This 13-movement cycle is the only one of Messiaen's major works to end in darkness and despair, with the lonely song of the warbler piercing a pitch-black Brittany seascape, accompanied only by the mournful boom of a lighthouse and the endless rolling of waves against a stony shore. Messiaen could 'paint' such pictures in sound as vividly as a Debussy or a Richard Strauss before him, but he could also lift his gaze towards a heaven which was as real for him as the earth below. Hence both the all-encompassing power and tender sincerity of the Vingt Regards, composed during the depths of the Second World War, which retains enduring popularity even among musicians and audiences who are challenged either by musical complexity or by direct appeal to the emotions. This set is thus the fruit of years of living with the music, as well as the years spent recording it. Ciro Longobardi has performed Messiaen in recital and at festivals across Europe, throughout a career spanning three decades, which began with his prize-winning appearance at the International Gaudeamus Competition in Rotterdam in 1994.

The Seattle Symphony releases live performances of Olivier Messiaen's Des canyons aux �toiles... ("From the Canyons to the Stars..."), which takes inspiration from the rock spires, birdsong and night sky of Utah's national parks. With Judith Fong Conductor Emeritus Ludovic Morlot on the podium and guest Steven Osborne on piano, the Symphony presents Messiaen's starry-eyed journey through nature and the divine, recorded before a live audience in the stunning acoustics of Benaroya Hall alongside video projections of inspiring national parks and monuments.

Messiaen's most famous work, Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time), was composed while a captive in a German prisoner of war at Stalag VIII A, located near the town of G�rlitz-Moys in Silesia, Germany. Messiaen met there three fellow prisoners who were also accomplished musicians: Etienne Pasquier, a world-class cellist who had already secured an international reputation as a member of the Pasquier Trio; Jean Le Boulaire, a violinist who had studied at the Paris Conservatory; and Henri Akoka, a clarinetist who was a member of the Paris-based Orchestre National de la Radio. Together, this unusual ensemble formed the basis for one of the most extraordinary works of the 20th century. Rooted in his deeply Christian faith, the Quatuor is inspired by the 10th chapter of the Book of Revelation. It was also Messiaen's first composition to include bird song, in addition to his developing use of color imagery, and his continuing exploration of many interesting and novel ways of rhythmic organization to create a feeling of timelessness. Two of the most highly esteemed classical musicians in Denmark, violinist Christina �strand and pianist Per Salo (AKA Duo �strand/Salo) are joined by two colleagues from The Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Johnny Teyssier, clarinet, and Henrik Dam Thomsen, cello for a performance as pure as crystal and as immense as space.

On the Shoulders of Giants is the latest album from the renowned cellist Claudio Bohórquez, with works ranging from Schumann to Webern, from Schubert to Messiaen, this album is a journey on the shoulders of musical giants, both in the compositions and in the interpretations. Accompanied by the legendary conductor and pianist Christoph Eschenbach, Bohórquez delivers an extraordinary performance that is a treat for the ears and soul. With his exceptional skill and technique, he explores the depths of the cello's sound, bringing out the unique beauty and emotion of each piece. The album features Schumann's Adagio & Allegro op. 70, a powerful and expressive work that showcases Bohórquez's impeccable bowing and phrasing. The 2 Pieces for Cello and Piano by A. v. Webern are a masterclass in modernist composition, with Bohórquez and Eschenbach expertly navigating the intricate and complex melodies. Schubert's Sonata (Arpeggione) is a true gem of the cello repertoire. Finally, O. Messiaen's Louange à l‘Éternité de Jésus is a beautiful and moving work that showcases the cello's ability to convey deep spiritual emotions.