Des Canyons Aux Etoiles

• Commissioned to celebrate the bicentenary of the United

States Declaration of Independence, Olivier Messiaen's Des

canyons aux etoiles (From the Canyons to the Stars) was

inspired by the composer's tours around Utah's magnificent

landscapes.

• The work's unusual instrumentation creates a texture that

evokes the majesty and loneliness of the landscape, as well

as it's inhabitant birds with astonishing effect.

• This recording presents a rare opportunity to hear a work

not available extensively on record and infrequently

performed live.

• Recorded in concert at Royal Festival Hall on 2 November

2013, as part of Southbank Centre's The Rest Is Noise

year-long festival of 20th c. music, inspired by Alex Ross's

bestselling book of the same name.

• Christoph Eschenbach, a champion of 20th - 21st c. music,

has gained a reputation as a key interpreter of more unusual

and challenging works.

• Pianist Tzimon Barto is one of America's foremost pianists,

and has enjoyed a close musical collaboration with

Christoph Eschenbach for 25 years.

• "... it's the teeming richness of the whole that overwhelms,

and Eschenbach and his players had the measure of the

music's vast perspectives." (Evening Standard)