OLIVIER MESSIAEN (1908-1992): Fantaisie for Violin and Piano, Le Merle noir for Flute and Piano, Pièce for Piano and String Quartet, Morceau de lecture à vue for Piano (world premiere recording), Quatuor pour la fin du temps.

Description: Except for the well-known Quatuor, this is a collection of Messiaen chamber pieces of significant rarity, from the quite early, nine-minute Fantaisie of 1933 with its basis in plainsong, expanded to include chromatic intervals, to the first recording of the Morceau, a two-minute sight-reading exercise from the following year and the late (1991) Pièce. This three-minute work revisits the song of Messiaen's beloved Garden Warbler in its central section. Le Merle noir (1952) is hardly well-known either: a rare early experiment with serialism underpinning its bird-song. Matthew Schellhorn (piano), Soloists of the Philharmonia Orchestra.