大象传媒

This is world premiere of a movement which Olivier Messiaen had intended for his late, great 脡clairs sur l鈥橝u-del脿 鈥� (Illuminations of the Beyond 鈥�), which captures the song of the tui bird from New Zealand.

Messiaen had written all the music for the movement and only needed to write up the orchestration at the time of his death. The realisation of 鈥楿n oiseau des arbres de Vie鈥� heard here is based on Messiaen鈥檚 annotations in the short score, supplemented by precedents from the music of 脡clairs and the composer鈥檚 other final works.

Messiaen wrote a letter on 18 March 1991 to Nicholas Armfelt, who had sent the composer a tape of New Zealand bird songs: 鈥淭hank you with all my heart for your cassette 鈥� The tui utters sounds that are sometimes flute-like, at other times grating; absolutely extraordinary.鈥�