Many people go through life without having the faintest inkling of Messiaen’s music, but there is a before and after for all those who have tasted his extraordinary soundscapes. One is no longer the same person, and one wants to have more. It is like a Babette’s Feast of music, both exclusive and exotic, yet utterly spontaneous and embracing a universe of colors and rhythms, human, divine and even extra-terrestrial.

Three of Messiaen’s most passionate vocal masterworks are presented on the current program, from the visionary Trois petites liturgies de la Présence divine (Three Small Liturgies of the Divine Presence) (1934), the popular O sacrum convivium! (1937) and the extraordinary – and extraordinarily difficult – Cinq Rechants (Five Refrains) (1948).

The internationally renowned choir conductor Marcus Creed is joined for this all Messiaen program by the three of Denmark’s greatest musical treasures: The Danish National Concert Choir, Danish National Vocal Ensemble and The Danish National Chamber Orchestra, in addition to internationally acclaimed soloists Marianna Shirinyan (Piano) and Thomas Bloch (ondes Martenot). An essential disc featuring some of the most hypnotically beautiful and transcendent music of the last century.