Messiaen: Un Sourire (1989) (A smile) - download (MP3 & FLAC)

Love and faith, mortality and eternity are the abiding themes of these three important and beautifully shimmering works by one of the 20th century’s most innovative composers.

Les offrandes oubliées, Messiaen’s first published orchestral work, is a symphonic meditation on Christ’s loving sacrifice to redeem the sin of humanity.

Poèmes pour Mi sets nine mystical texts which were written as highly personal love songs to his first wife, Claire Delbos, while Un sourire pays homage to what he saw as Mozart’s ever-smiling attitude to life’s many hardships.

“One of the most electrifying singers of our time” BBC Radio Three on Anne Schwanewilms, May 2009

Spanning six decades, Messiaen’s orchestral and vocal-orchestral music embody one of the monuments of 20th-century music. Under Pierre Boulez and Myung-Whun Chung, here is the only available complete recording, on 10 CDs, of all these masterpieces, including classics like the Turangalila Symphony and From the Canyon to the Stars, as well as rarities like The Forgotten Offerings and the brief Chorus of the Departed. With new liner notes by Messiaen expert Nigel Simeone and full sung texts and translations