Messiaen: Oiseaux exotiques (Exotic Birds)

The Norwegian Army Band is based in Bergen, and is a professional wind band that consists of 28 musicians. The NABB is particularly celebrated for its performances and recordings of contemporary music, particularly those of its native Norway.

Peter Szilvay is a much sought after young Norwegian conductor who has worked with many national and international orchestras. He has also recorded several world premieres with orchestras like the Oslo Philharmonics and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra.

Following last year’s critically acclaimed “Bad News in the Desert”, the band’s new album features a seminal work from the middle of the 20th century, Olivier Messiaen’s “Oiseaux Exotiques” in a special arrangement for piano and wind band. The soloist is the pianist Håkon Austbø. Also included are works by two contemporary Norwegian composers, Torstein Aagaard-Nilsen and Eivind Buene. Aagaard-Nilsen’s “Winds of Changes” incorporates the Bach chorale “Ach, Gott, erhör mein seufzen und wehklagen” and was written as a response to the 9/11 attacks. Buene’s “Topographics”, a percussion concerto that features Eirik Raude, is a musical representation of different landscapes.

Northern Winds is an inspirational album featuring a wealth of Canadian talent that highlights imaginative approaches to wind orchestration across various styles by several composers, from Louis Applebaum’s High Spirits for full ensemble to Henry Kucharzyk’s Some Assembly Required whose title wittily refers to his pointillistic/ aleatoric technique.

The young featured soloists have already been critically acclaimed, Canadian saxophonist Wallace Halladay as “one of Canada’s leading performers of contemporary music” and Australian-born, Halifax-based pianist Simon Docking for his “extraordinarily vivid realizations of contemporary music”.

To celebrate the 100th birthday of Olivier Messiaen, Hannsler Classics present this sumptuous 8-CD-Box set. It is the first time that Messiaen’s complex orchestral scores have been performed by a single orchestra and conductor. This results in a uniform interpretation, which is characterized by the superb performances of anorchestra renown for its sensitive and insightful interpretations of the newest scores and a conductor who has been devoted to the cause of Messiaen’s music.

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

It was meant to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the great French composer’s birth in December 2008. Released in September 2008, it was sold out before the anniversary date – all 4,000 boxes of the Messiaen Complete Edition.

There are benchmark performances by Pierre Boulez, Myung-Whun Chung, Olivier Latry and Roger Muraro, among many others. It’s the only set that can offer Messiaen’s magnum opus, the opera Saint François d’Assise. New recordings were made for the Edition; two works were recorded for the first time.

Limited Edition.

The only Messiaen box to offer the complete works. Highlights include:

Complete Orchestral Works: Boulez and Chung (including new [2008] recording of Trois petites liturgies and Couleurs de la Cité céleste).

Complete Piano Works: Roger Muraro.

Complete Organ Works: Olivier Latry.

Saint François: José van Dam / Dawn Upshaw / Kent Nagano.

Rarities include La Mort du Nombres, Choeur des déportés, Fêtes des belles eaux for Ondes Martenot, 4 Inédits pour piano et ondes Martenot, Chant dans le style de Mozart ….

Lavish 400-page CD booklet in French and English.