Le Merle noir (1951)

“Among the artistic hierarchy,” Messiaen once said, “the birds are probably the greatest musicians to inhabit our planet.” Whether that opinion was shared by the students who first had to learn Le Merle noir, which was written as a test piece for Paris Conservatoire flautists in 1951, is open to question. Certainly, the two unaccompanied cadenzas - one near the beginning of the piece and one in the middle, both of them based on Messiaen’s complex and highly idiosyncratic transcriptions of the song of the blackbird - pose formidable technical problems, not least in deciphering the rhythms. There are, however, lyrical consolations in the two melodious episodes that follow the cadenzas, the second of them a beautifully poised canon, and virtuoso exhilaration for both performers in the extravagantly exuberant closing section.