Michael Kieran Harvey Collection cOlaitvialer Moessiguaene d’oiseaux

Australian Peter Cundall premiere live narrates performance Messiaen’s texts by Michael that accompany Kieran Harvey each tableau, of the complete exploring the Catalogue of Birds environment and sounds of 13 bird species TOTAL PLAYING TIME 3HOURS30MINUTES move.com.au by Michael KieranHarvey, for moreinformation onrecordings Released 2005 byMoveRecords … 8 Narrationandmotifs 6 Narrationandmotifs 2 Narrationandmotifs /part3 1 PeterCundallintroduction CD-C 8 Narrationandmotifs 6 Narrationandmotifs 4 Narrationandmotifs 2 Narrationandmotifs /part2 1 PeterCundallintroduction CD-B q0 Narrationandmotifs 8 Narrationandmotifs 6 Narrationandmotifs 4 Narrationandmotifs 2 Narrationandmotifs /part1 1 PeterCundallintroduction CD-A 5 4 Narrationandmotifs 9 7 5 3 9 7 3 qa 9 7 5 3 IV. TheBlack-earedWheatear

XIII. TheCurlew XII. TheBlackWheatear XI. TheBuzzard X. TheRockThrush IX. Cetti’sWarbler VIII. TheShort-toedLark VII. TheReedWarbler caVI. TheWoodlark talogue V. TheTawny Owl III. TheBlueRockThrush II. TheGoldenOriole I. TheAlpineChough d’oiseaux MD 3272

12’14” 9’43”

4’43” 3’04” 3’26” 5’16” 5’57” 2’22” 10’57” 1’42” 2’00” 6’54” 3’24” 3’08” 4’13” 7’12” 5’48”

10’33”

16’33” 7’33” 7’21”

27’54”

8’01” 5’22” 13’02”

0’27” 1’52” 2’53” 14’21”

visit theirwebsiteattendays.org.au . daysontheIsland ForfurtherdetailsaboutTen byHydro sponsored ofApril2005atMorrillainTasmania. Theeventwas Island overthe2ndand3rd Daysonthe byTen Peter CundallofMessiaen’sCatalogued’oiseauxwaspresented byMichaelKieranHarveywithnarration oftheperformance This recording andsincere.” wasgenerous partnership, anditschampioningofnature, bird-lover andprisonerofwarinthe1940s.TheempathicHarvey-Cundall narrator, ABCgardeningexpertPeterCundall,was,likeMessiaen,anaturalist, charactersandhabitats.…The foryearsandthecreatures’ birdsong herecorded withcrystallineacuitythe with emotion,framedbythecomposertoreveal some airyandmysterious,othersmonumental,incandescent sounds andforms, dimensions,aphantasmagoriaof “… Catalogued’oiseauxisaworkofprodigious

Lee Christofis,TheAustralian MD 3272 MD

gentle lament for the destruction of habitat for instance, La Rousserole Effarvette, became clear to me and gave the immense describes a complete 27 hours in just half effort of performing it, and listening to it, an hour. Like a fractal equation, even one powerful meaning. It seems we cannot chord of Messiaen presages a cosmos change the course of global desertification of creation. It is the complete antithesis because we cannot control ourselves, but of the ‘easy listening’ trend in much some gifted individuals such as Olivier contemporary music, the outcome of the Messiaen can capture the disappearing application of blinkered market strategies species as music, which may live on a little to an art form. Be courageous and open, longer. and your patience will be rewarded, just Messiaen to me represents a lynchpin as the heroic ornithologist must wait of the history of music, a direct link to seemingly eons for the satisfaction of one the great genius and breadth of spirit of glimpse, one snippet of glorious melody. Bach, Beethoven, and Liszt. Recently it was proved scientifically through tracking Michael Kieran Harvey mitochondrial DNA that 45 million years ago the ancestor of all the songbirds in the world migrated from Gondwana and It was the brilliant Barrie Kosky who first spawned the 4600 species of songbirds Each piece in the put the idea of performing the entire in the world – Australia holds special Catalogue d’oiseaux in my head in the mid significance as the crucible of the world’s Catalogue d’oiseaux 90s, but at the time the prospect scared the songbirds, and one could extrapolate, the cycle follows a daylights out of me – how could anyone birth of music itself. Written at the same perform these seven volumes at once, time as Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, the descriptive program, and more to the point why? Why subject harrowing vision of a world made silent set out in prose by by human’s war on nature, the Catalogue an Australian audience and oneself to the Olivier Messiaen as a most notoriously difficult, monumental and d’oiseaux seems to be particularly pertinent uncompromising French piano cycle ever to us now – a period of accelerating preface to the score. written simply for the sake of a premiere? species extinctions – as a symbol of the The commentary is I had first visited Tasmania in the late diversity of life and a celebration of the 1980s. After moving to Tasmania in 2003 real, the original musical virtuosos. peppered with such and seeing first hand the effects of greed The types of music in the Catalogue gifts to the performer and stupidity on one of the most pristine are rarely heard these days, and are just environments in the world (as well as as rare as the birdsongs portrayed. They as ‘ecstatic’, ‘explodes’, being almost run off the road several times require different ways of listening: different ‘mysterious’ and by convoys of logging trucks), the idea concepts of time, the ‘universe in a of performing this cycle as a personal, nutshell’ as it were. The central movement ‘jubilant’. A1 Peter Cundall introduction A4 Narration A5 II. Le Loriot / The Golden BOOK ONE Oriole (Oriolus oriolus)

A2 Narration The end of June. Branderaie de Gardépée A3 I. Le chocard des Alpes (Charente), around 5.30 in the morning; / The Alpine Chough (Coracia Orgeval, around 6 o’clock: Les Maremberts graculus) (Loir et Cher) in midday sunlight. The Golden Oriole, yellowgold with black Strophe. The Alps of the Dauphiny, wings, twitters among the oak trees. Its l’Oisans: the ascent towards the Meidje and song, flowing, golden, like the laughter its three glaciers. of an exotic prince, evokes Africa or Asia, First couplet. Near the Chancel refuge the ALPINE CHOUGH or some unknown world – filled with a lake of Puy-Vacher, marvellous landscape rainbow light, the smiles of Leonardo da of summits, chasms and precipices. Vinci. In the woods and gardens, other An Alpine Chough, separated from its birds: the rapid, decisive stanza of the flock, calls as it crosses the precipice. Wren, the secretive caress of the Robin, Gliding, silent and majestic, the Golden the brio of the Blackbird, the long-short- Eagle, borne on currents of air. Raucous, long metre of the Black-throated Redstart, ferocious cawings and snarlings of the the ritual incantations of the Song Thrush. Raven, lord of the high peaks. Varied For a long while, tirelessly, the Garden cries of the Choughs, with their acrobatic Warblers pour forth their sweet virtuosity. flight (gliding, swooping, looping the The Chiffchaff adds its skipping droplets of loop) above the abyss. Antistrophe. Before water. Drowsy recollection of gold, of the St-Christophe-en-Oisans, the rocks of rainbow the sun seemingly draws its light St-Christophe: a jumble of fallen slabs, from the golden rays of the Oriole’s song boulders as if from Dante, heaped up by … the giants of the Mountain. Second couplet. An Alpine Chough surveys the landscape, hovering over the cliffs. The same calls and flights as in the first couplet. Epode. Les Ecrins: the amphitheatre of Bonne-Pierre, with its GOLDEN ORIOLE huge rocks lined up like giant phantoms … or like the towers of a supernatural fortress! A6 Narration Haughty, aristocratic, he struts on the A7 III. Le Merle bleu / The stony ground in his finery of orange silk Blue Rock Thrush (Monticola and black velvet - an inverted ‘T’ dividing solitarius) the white of his tail, a mask of deep black SHORT-TOED LARK covering his brow, cheeks and throat. A The month of June. Roussillon, the Spanish Grandee, one might say, on his Vermilion Coast. Near Banyuls: Cap way to a masked ball. His refrain is rapid, l’Abeille, Cap Rederis. Cliffs overhang the curt, abrupt. Nearby, among the vines, sea (Prussian-blue, sapphire-blue). Cries an Ortolan Bunting casts forth ecstatically of Swifts; splashing water. The headlands its flute-toned repeated notes, with their stretch into theme-like crocodiles. Echoing mournful cadence. This is the ‘garrigue’: in a rocky cleft, the Blue Rock Thrush a wilderness filled with low prickly plants sings. Its blue is in contrast to the sea: (gorse, rosemary, rock-rose, kermes oaks) purple-blue, slate, satin, blue-black. Almost from whence comes the exquisite song of oriental, recalling music of Bali, its song BLUE ROCK THRUSH an unseen Spectacled Warbler. Flying high merges with the sound of the waves. Also and far out over the sea, the Herring Gulls heard is the Thekla Lark which flutters in can be heard: their cruel screeching, their the sky above the vines and wild rosemary. dry, percussive sniggering. A trio of Ravens Herring Gulls scream far out to sea. The flies above the rocky cliffs with low, cliffs are awesome. Arriving at their feet, powerful cawings. A little Goldfinch sets its the water breathes its last – a memory tiny bells tinkling. of the Blue Rock Thrush (‘like a choir of Five o’clock in the morning. The red- women’s voices in the distance …’). gold disc of the sun rises from the sea and climbs into the sky. A golden halo BOOK TWO spreads from the top of the disc, until the BLACK-EARED WHEATEAR sun is entirely yellow-gold. The sun climbs A8 Narration higher. A band of light takes shape on the A9 IV. Le Traquet Stapazin surface of the sea. / The Black-eared Wheatear Nine in the morning. In the light and (Oenanthe hispanica) heat a succession of other voices: the Orphean Warbler, hidden in the cork-oaks, The end of June. Roussillon, the Vermilion strikes its two flute-like notes; then the Coast. Beyond Banyuls: Cap l’Abeille, Cap crystal fragments of the Corn Bunting, the Rederis. Rocky cliffs, mountains, the sea, demented gaiety of the Rock Bunting, the terraced vineyards. The vine-leaves are still voluble Melodious Warbler – while, on the green. wing, the Thekla Lark: its song exultant, At the roadside. A Black-eared Wheatear. thrilling, mingled with shrill cries. Several Black-eared Wheaters call to one another. hooting is more distant, like a bell tolling Nine in the evening. The sun, cloaked from another world. in blood and gold, sinks behind the mountains. The Albères mountains are B1 Peter Cundall introduction 2 covered in fire. The sea darkens. The sky turns from red to orange, then is stained B2 Narration a dream-like violet … Final refrains of the B3 VI. L’Alouette Lulu / The Spectacled Warbler. In the darkening vines, Woodlark (Lullula arborea) three notes from the Ortolan Bunting. Harsh sniggers from a Herring Gull, miles From the col of the Grand Bois at out over the dark sea. Silence … St-Sauveur en Rue, in the mountains of the Ten o’clock. Nightfall. A faint echo of the Forez. Pinewoods to the right of the road, Spectacled Warbler. meadows to the left. High in the sky; in the darkness, the Woodlark peel off two- BOOK THREE by-two: a chromatic, fluid descent. Hidden in a thicket, in a clearing in the wood, a Aq0 Narration Nightingale responds, its biting tremolos Aqa V. La Chouette Hulotte / set in contrast with the mysterious voice The Tawny Owl (Strix aluco) from on high. A Woodlark, invisible, draws near, fades. The trees and fields are dark Plumage flecked with brown and russet; TAWNY OWL and still. It is midnight. huge facial discs; a look of solemnity, stamped with mystery, wisdom, the BOOK FOUR supernatural: and even more than its appearance, the voice of this nocturnal B4 Narration bird inspires terror. I have often heard it, B5 VII. La Rousserolle in the depths of the night, towards two Effarvatte / The Reed o’clock in the morning, in the woods of Warbler (Acrocephalus Orgeval, of St Germain en Laye, on the scirpaceus) way from Petichet to Cholonge (Isère). Darkness, fear, a racing heartbeat, mewings A great cycle, following 27 hours in the and yelpings of the Little Owl, cries of the bird life of the reeds, lakes and marshes, Long-eared Owl: and there - the call of the and of the neighbouring woods and fields. Tawny Owl: now cheerless and mournful, The setting is the Sologne region, south now vague and disquieting (with a strange of Orléans. Midnight. Music of the lakes, shudder), now shouted in terror like the WOODLARK followed by a chorus of frogs, the booming shriek of a murdered child! Silence. The notes of the Bittern. 3am. Along solo for the Reed Warbler, Skylark rockets heavenwards in jubilation, concealed among the reeds, rasping in answered by the frogs in the lake. A Water timbre (like a xylophone, a squeaking cork, Rail, unseen, screams like a strangled pig – pizzicati on strings, a harp glissando), with falling, fading. Silence. something of that savage obsessiveness 9pm. Sunset: red, orange, violet over found only in reed birds. Cymbals, gongs the lake of the Irises. The Bittern booms, and trombones - interspersed with a a solemn, awesome blast. The blood- confusion of sounds from the marsh - mark coloured disc is mirrored in the lake: the the solemnity of night. Silence. sun merges with its reflection as it sinks 6am. Sunrise: pink, orange, mauve over into the water. The sky is a deep violet. the lake of the Waterlilies. A Blackbird Midnight. The darkness is profound, duets joyfully with a Red-backed Shrike. A like the resonance of a tam-tam. The chuckling solo for the Redstart. The chords Nightingale strikes up, its phrases by turn of sunrise intensify. biting, mysterious. The confused sounds of 8am. The Yellow Irises. A medley of the marsh … a frog stirs … the cymbals, incisive calls: the raucous Pheasant, the gongs, trombones. 3am. Another scherzo Reed Bunting, weird laughter of the Green for the Reed Warbler. Chorus of frogs. The Woodpecker, the whistling glissando of the mysterious, brittle music of the ponds fades Starling, the Great Tit, nervous fluttering of into the mist The Bittern booms. the White Wagtail (exquisite in its garb of REED WARBLER half-mourning). BOOK FIVE Midday. The interminable insect trills of the Grasshopper Warbler. B6 Narration 5pm. Return of the Reed Warbler, B7 VIII. L’Alouette alternating with the powerful tremolos of Calandrelle / The Short- the Sedge Warbler, the harsh, obstinate toed Lark (Calendrella call of the Great Reed Warbler, the singing brachydactyla) harmonies of the Purple Foxgloves and the Waterlilies. The dry, flabby croak of a frog. Provence in July. Les Baux, Les Alpilles: A black-headed Gull gives chase. A Coot arid rocky terrain, with broom and cypress. – black, its forehead marked with white – The Crau, a stony wilderness. Fierce light clucks sharply (a sound like stones dashed and heat. together), then tootles its little trumpet. SHORT-TOED LARK 2pm. The piping call of the Short-toed A long, syncopated duet for two Reed, Lark. Chorus of cicadas, the staccato alarm Warblers. of the Kestrel, the dull long-short-long of 6pm. The Yellow Irises, and again the the Quail. A two-part invention for the high trills of the Grasshopper Warbler. The Short-toed Lark and the Crested Lark. Silence. The cicadas, Kestrel, Quail. harmony (like a harpsichord blended with 4pm. Alone in the heat and solitude of a gong), distant moonstruck chords and mid-afternoon the brief phrases of the piercing flashes: the Nightingale. Nuptial Short-toed Lark. 6pm. The Skylark erupts flight of the Kingfisher, its colours spinning into song, vehement, jubilant. Again the in the sunlight – forget-me-not, sapphire, Short-toed Lark. emerald. Intense, nervous rustlings of the Sand Martin. A last cadence for the river, B8 Narration a gentle secretive cadenza for the Robin. B9 IX. La Bouscarle / The Yellow Wagtail, its head coloured Cetti’s Warbler (Celtia telti) CETTI’S WARBLER ash-blue, steps elegantly along the bank. The Kingfisher dives; then arrows past in The last days of April. Saint-Brice, La a jeweled blur. Silence. A final tirade from Trache, Bourg-Charente, the banks of the the Cetti’s Warbler. Charente and of the Charenton, a small tributary. A sudden burst of violence: the BOOK SIX enraged call of a Cetti’s Warbler, hidden in the reeds and brambles. A Moorhen C1 Peter Cundall introduction 3 cackles. Sharp cries, then a flash of colour as a Kingfisher skims across the water. C2 Narration A fine day of light and shadow. The C3 X. Le Merle de roche / willows and poplars are reflected in the The Rock Thrush (Monticola green of the water. Rich chords hymn the saxabilis) calm flow of the river: joyful fanfares of the Blackbird, the bluegreen shimmer of Hérault in May. The cirque of Mourèze: the Kingfisher, the pearly cascades of a dolomites, rocks jumbled into fantastic Robin. Again the furious Cetti’s Warbler. forms. And what is this strange noise? – a saw? a Night, moonlight. Looming overall, an scythe being sharpened? the scraping of immense hand of stone! Towards the end a guero? It is the Corn Crake, repeating of night, the Eagle Owl utters its powerful its iambic rhythm in the tall grasses of the and sombre hooting. The female responds meadow. The Song Thrush adds its fierce with muffled accents, a sinister hilarity incantations. Accents and tremolos from whose rhythm merges into the racing pulse the little Wren. The river continues calmly, of terror. Dawn breaks: the varied cries its phrases interspersed with a medley of of Jackdaws. Then the Black Redstart sets song. The Chaffinch exclaims in triumph. ROCK THRUSH up its monotonous chant, alternating with A Blackcap adds its flute-like descant. The a noise like pearls raffling, paper being muffled rhythm of the Hoopoe. A halo of creased, or rustling silk. The rocks are terrifying, stone, prehistoric creatures – Second couplet. The same, with the Stegosaurus, Diplodocus – stand guard, a Goldfinch also. Refrain of the Mistle group by Max Ernst, a cortège of cowled Thrush. ghosts in stone, bearing the corpse of a Third couplet. The Swallows. A Red- woman whose hair trails on the ground. backed Shrike gives the alarm. Combat: Perched on a pinnacle, the Rock Thrush! six Caffion Crows mob the Buzzard for How fine he is! Blue head, russet tail, its prey. Deep ferocious cawings from black wings, vivid orange breast. He sings the one, grated fluttering and weird through the hours of the sun, warmth mewing from the other. Refrain of the and light: ten in the morning, five in the Mistle Thrush. Hurried strophes of the afternoon – and his song is gleaming Whitethroat. orange, like his plumage! The moments of BUZZARD Coda. The cry of the Buzzard; it circles silence are rhythmical, measured in long slowly, soaring upwards. durations. The Black Redstart resumes its rustling. Last cries of the Jackdaws. C6 Narration Dusk fades. The Eagle Owl hoots: its C7 XII. La Traquet rieur voice echoes among the rocks, heralding / The Black Wheatear darkness and dread. There, still, is the giant (Oenanthe teucura) hand, raised above the stone monsters, a magic sign! The month of May. A fine Sunny morning. Cap Béar, beneath Port-Vendres BOOK SEVEN (Roussillion). Rocky cliffs, garrigue, the sea woven with blue and sapphire-blue, C4 Narration silvered by the sunlight. The joy of the C5 XI. La Buse variable / blue sea. The song of the Black Wheatear. The Buzzard (Buteo buteo) BLACK WHEATEAR Dialogue between a Blue Rock Thrush, more caressing, and the Black Wheatear, In the Dauphiny, la Matheysine. The more exuberant, punctuated by the harking broad open countryside of Petichet, at of the Herring Gull; the piercing screams of the end of Lake Laffrey, beneath the bald Swifts and the curt interjections of Black- mountain of the Grand Serre. eared Wheatears. Black, its tail white with Introduction. The cry of the Buzzard as black markings, the Black Wheatear is it flies to and fro. It circles, the orbits of perched on a rocky pinnacle at the base its flight covering the whole landscape. It of the cliff. A Spectacled Warbler is heard descends slowly. from the garrigue. A breeze ruffles the sea, First couplet. Chaffinch, Yellow hammer. ever blue and sapphire-blue, and silvered Mewing of the Buzzard. Refrain of the by the sunlight. The joy of the blue sea. Mistle Thrush. C8 Narration Original recording: C9 XIII. Le Courlis cendré Australian Broadcasting / The Curlew (Numenius Corporation arquata) 2-3 April 2005 at Moorills Estate, The island of Ushaint (Enez Eusa), off Tasmania the west coast of Brittany. On the headland Engineer: Jim Aitkins of Pern one can see a large bird with Producer: Duncan Yardley streaked plumage and russet markings, Mastering for CD: a grey-brown bird standing upright Martin Wright with a long beak curved like a sickle or (Move Records) yataghan: the Curlew! This is its song: sad, CURLEW slow tremolos, chromatic accents, wild Michael Kieran Harvey and Peter trills, and a mournful repeated glissando Cundall photos: which expresses all the desolation of the Simon Cuthbert and seashore. On the headland of Feunteun- This narration as delivered Peter Mathew Velen, lashed by the noise of the waves, by Peter Cundall and printed Front cover and CD label paintings: the circles of water birds: the cruel call here, was translated by Peter Graeme Lee of the Black-headed Gull, the rhythmic (gouache, ink and collage horn-calls of the Herring Gull, the fluted Hill in 1988, from Olivier on Arches paper) melody of the Redshank, the repeated Messiaen’s introduction to the notes of the Turnstone, the piping trills printed scores. Bird plates: of the Oystercatcher, and others besides: British Bird Book 1913 the Little Ringed Plover, the Common The Birds of the British Gull, the Guillemot, the Little Tern and the Isles 1926 Wikipedia Sandwich Tern. The water extends as far as Graphic design: the eye can see. Little by little, fog and the Martin Wright night spread over the sea. All is dark and dreadful. From amidst the jagged rocks, Program texts: the lighthouse of Créac’h lets out a dismal OlivierMessiaen boom: it is the alarm! Again a number of (translated by Peter Hill) bird calls, and the lament of the Curlew Move Records, repeating as it flies faraway. Cold black Melbourne, Australia night, the splash of the surf. move.com.au The birds are the real artists – they are the true originators of my pieces

OLIVIER MESSIAEN In 1961 he married Yvonne Loriod, a (1908-1992) brilliant pianist who became a great exponent of, and inspiration for, much of Olivier Messiaen was unquestionably his music. one of the 20th century’s greatest A keen ornithologist, Messiaen went composers and probably the century’s on many field expeditions collecting most influential composition teacher. examples of birdsong, at all hours of the He wrote harmonically colourful, and day and night. He transcribed the songs rhythmically complex music, informed by in meticulous detail and incorporated not a deep religious faith and a fascination for only the birdsongs, but also the landscapes birdsong and the diversity of nature. he encountered into the massive Catalogue He began his musical studies at the d’oiseaux (1956–58). In one interview he Paris Conservatoire aged only eleven. acknowledged that birdsong had become a An exceptional organist, he wrote many refuge for him: ‘in my darkest hours, when works for the instrument, and from 1931 my uselessness is brutally revealed to me’. until his death was organist at La Trinité in Paris. At the outbreak of World War II, Messiaen was mobilised as a soldier and, one year later, he was taken prisoner after the fall of France. He spent the next year in a POW camp in Sileisia, in conditions of extreme cold and deprivation. While he was interned during 1941 he composed arguably his most famous work, Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time) to play with three fellow prisoners, a clarinettist, a violinist and a cellist. As a teacher of analysis and composition in Paris, Messiaen attracted a group of young avant-garde students, which included Boulez, Stockhausen and Xenakis. involving piano Peter Cundall (narrator) has been to high critical gardening since he was a child during acclaim. Michael the 1930s. Born in Manchester England in Kieran Harvey’s 1927 he first started gardening after school distinctive and during holidays by laying turf lawns. pianism has been Towards the end of World War II he was recognised by conscripted, joining the British Parachute numerous national Regiment and serving in Europe and the and international Middle East. After leaving the awards, including he continued with gardening activities in the Grand his spare time. Eventually he enlisted in Prix in the Ivo the in 1950 as a means of Pogorelich Piano getting to this country more quickly. After Competition, leaving the forces he worked full time as Pasadena (1993), a self-employed gardener and landscaper the Debussy in northern Tasmania. He started radio Medal, Paris broadcasting in 1967 with one of the (1986), four world’s first gardening talkback programs consecutive from a Launceston commercial station. In Australian ‘Mo’ 1969 he began making weekly television awards for best programs for ABC-TV called It’s Growing, classical artist which provided practical gardening (1997-2000), information. During this period he helped the Australian form the Organic Gardening and Farming Australian-based pianist Michael Kieran government’s Society, personally forming 20 branches Harvey was born in Sydney and studied Centenary Medal for services to Australian in different parts of Tasmania during piano in Canberra with Alan Jenkins, music (2002), and most recently he has a two-year period. Today Peter is best at the Sydney Conservatorium under been twice nominated for the Helpmann known as the presenter of the nationwide Gordon Watson, and at the Liszt Academy, Award (2003-4). In 2005 the estate of the Gardening Australia program on ABC Budapest, under the Director, Professor late Susan Remington established the TV. After experiencing three wars he Sándor Falvai. His career has been notable Michael Kieran Harvey Scholarship in continues to be actively involved with any for its consistent diversity and wide honour of his contribution to Australian anti-war movements, is deeply involved repertoire. Renowned for his performances music, and to encourage future directions with environmental campaigns and is of new music, he has especially promoted in keyboard art music. He is currently strongly opposed to any form of racial, the works of Australian composers, artist-in-residence at the Victorian College religious, class, sexual or any other form of internationally and within Australia. He of the Arts and Fellow of the Faculty of discrimination. has performed most of Messiaen’s works Music, Melbourne University. Catalogue d’oiseaux was composed for solo piano by French composer Olivier Messiaen in 1958. The thirteen tableaux (sub-divided into seven books), which collectively comprise this work, form one of the great landmarks of 20th century piano literature. In broad terms it is an attempt to classify and record the sounds of birds in the same way naturalists like Audubon have catalogued their physical appearance. But it is not just the songs of birds that are projected through this music but also the intense colours of avian plumage, and the awe Messiaen felt for birds as being, ‘like angels or resurrected souls, free in flight and at one with God’. Each piece explores the calls, and the environment of a single bird species, many of which were then endangered or on the point of extinction. Performances of the entire work are extremely rare and are recognised as a musical feat. This live recording for Ten Days on the Island is an Australian Premiere played in three parts by Michael Kieran Harvey over one weekend in April 2005. To help explain the work, Tasmania’s own naturalist and bird lover, Peter Cundall, lovingly narrates the composer’s prose notes for each tableau.