The Guardian

Messiaen’s birds provide the linking thread through Souvenirs d’Oiseaux, pianist Roderick Chadwick’s two-disc Divine Art anthology. It’s the second instalment in a series in which Chadwick is interleaving the seven volumes of the Catalogue d’Oiseaux with other piano works.

This set includes pieces from books 2 to 5 of Messiaen’s great cycle, including the centrepiece of the series, La Rousserolle Effarvatte (The Reed Warbler) which takes the whole of the fourth book; in between them there’s music by Grieg and Debussy, Betsy Jolas, Sadie Harrison and Julian Anderson. The juxtapositions aren’t always convincing, though Chadwick’s playing is keenly focused; competition from complete versions of the Catalogue on disc is fierce, too.

—Andrew Clements