Probably the only classical composer to have a mountain named after him (Mount Messiaen, Utah, 1978), Messiaen is among the most strikingly individual of 20th-century composers. Probably the only ...

choral and orchestral works through to miniatures for piano – all of it based on birdsong. An interest in birding soon turned into a full-blown obsession. Messiaen criss-crossed France ...