THE ROYAL CONCERTGEBOUW ORCHESTRA

 

Horizon 2 - A Tribute to Olivier Messiaen

 

Paul Dukas / Geert van Keulen

La plainte, au loin, du faune

 

Olivier Messiaen

Les Offrandes Oubliées, Chronochromie

 

Marc-André Dalbavie

La source d'un regard

 

Robert Zuidam

Adam-Interludes

 

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra / George Benjamin, Ingo Metzmacher

 

Recorded live at Concertgebouw Amsterdam on 8, 9 November 2007

(Dukas/Van Keulen, Dalbavie, Messiaen, and 13, 14 June 2008 (Zuidam)

 

A major musical figure of the 20th-century, Messiaen (1908-1992) created an entirely unique musical oeuvre in which such divergent elements as divinity, as it relates to Catholicism and other doctrines, ornithology and the synaesthetic perception of sound as colour are all interconnected with his innovative rhythmic and harmonic musical language and tonal organisation. As a thinker and teacher, Messiaen carried out groundbreaking work in music during the second half of the century, but his work as a composer has remained unsurpassed.

 

The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra programmed works not only by Messiaen himself, but also compositions by his musical predecessors, students and disciples, including three premières of works commissioned by the RCO: Geert van Keulen's orchestration of Paul Dukas's La plainte, au loin, du faune…, Marc-André Dalbavie's La source d'un regard (The Source of a Look) and Robert Zuidam's Adam Interludes.

 

RCO Live has captured this resounding homage to Olivier Messiaen in superb five-channel stereo.

 

RCO Live SACD RCO09003