The voice of birds: Olivier Messiaen, composer and ornithologist

Synopsis

For Olivier Messiaen, birds are “the greatest musicians inhabiting our planet”. On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of his death on 27 April 2022, we tell Olivier Messiaen’s story from the perspective of the birds. Messiaen became acquainted with birds at a young age, and when he came to Paris from the French provinces in his early 20s. As organist of the parish church of La Trinité in Paris, it is they who entrust him with their songs, over which he improvises. Music lovers from all over Europe make a pilgrimage to him. The premiere of his opera in Paris in 1983 is eagerly awaited: In “Der Heilige Franz von Assisi” (“Saint François d’Assise”), birds play a central role. Against the background of the “Voice of the Birds”, the film portrays the eventful life of the composer and ornithologist Messiaen through musical examples and stories told by selected interlocutors: among them there are Kent Nagano, the cellist Camille Thomas, the Ondes Martenot interpreter Natalie Forget and the organist Thomas Lacôte, the Messiaen biographer Peter Hill, the DJ and biologist Dominik Eulberg and last but not least Pierre-Laurent Aimard, who vividly explains selected passages from Messiaen’s “Catalogue d’oiseaux“.

Additional Info

• No: A05050869
• Composer: Olivier Messiaen
• Artists: Kent Nagano, Camille Thomas, Ondes Martenot, Pierre-Laurent Aimard
• Production year: 2022
• Run time: 00:52:00
• Director: A film by Holger Preusse, Philipp Quiring
• Producers: SWR, ARTE
• Format: HDTV 16:9