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The Latest Breaking News from Olivier Messiaen

From bells to choirs, different ‘timbres’ ring in the Christmas holiday season

Concerts and radio stations at this time of year are filled with both Christmas and winter holiday music.

The Conversation

Messiaen: Poèmes pour Mi; Chants de Terre et de Ciel album review – beguiling, soft-edged intimacy

The superb projection of Hannigan’s voice and the rainbow of colours in Chamayou’s piano lay bare the sexual desire and religious fervour prevalent in Messiaen’s early works

The Guardian - UK

Allan Holdsworth blew the minds of Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai and a generation of guitar heroes – and his extraordinary fretboard hacks are still inspiring players today

Take your playing to another realm with this lesson in Holdsworth’s legato, string skipping and that unique ability of his to find new patterns in scales

Guitar World

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Violinist Alena Baeva: 'We need to escape to our imaginary worlds'

Violinist Alena Baeva is Russian, Luxembourgish Polish and Ukrainian. With her Ukrainian husband, the pianist Vadym Kholodenko, she has just released a new album entitled "Fantasy", which revisits dream-tinted music by Franz Schubert, Igor Stravinsky, Robert Schumann and Olivier Messiaen. The duo are currently touring the record and the award-winning…

France 24

‘I threw my pop records in the bin’: George Benjamin on his defining moments – and his latest opera

As Picture a day Like this comes to the London stage, the composer speaks about finding his dream collaborator, entering ‘a different dimension’ with Olivier Messiaen – and the day Disney changed his life

The Guardian - UK

The week in classical: Dialogues des Carmélites; Tristan und Isolde; LSO/Rattle – review

Poulenc’s shattering opera disturbs and confounds in Barrie Kosky’s new Glyndebourne production; Wagner meets the pre-Raphaelites at Grange Park Opera. Plus, a thrilling farewell from Simon Rattle

The Guardian - UK

LSO/Rattle review – wistful and life-enhancing, a terrific farewell for the departing chief

Signing off with a joyous new commission from 96-year-old Betsy Jolas and a return to a longtime Messiaen favourite, Sir Simon led a regretful but sunny evening

The Guardian - UK

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Messiaen: Des Canyons aux Étoiles … review – epic score soars in Utah’s superb recording

Thierry Fischer leads the Utah Symphony in a fine new recording of Messiaen’s longest orchestral work, made in the very desert landscape that inspired it

The Guardian - UK

The week in classical: The Handmaid’s Tale; Le Chemin de la Croix; Bournemouth SO/Karabits

Strong performances offset the misery in ENO’s new production of Poul Ruders’s opera. Elsewhere, Easter organ music and a cosmic world premiere

The Guardian - UK

Whoever wins this year’s music Oscar, Hans Zimmer remains the most influential composer working in Hollywood today

As important to films as acting, writing, and design, music can instantly create a realistic or fantastic world, guide emotions and enhance storytelling. Yet the annual Academy Award nominations for best original score are one of the few times film music gets a look in with the general public.

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