I would be very interested to see a discussion thread opened on Olivier
Messiaen's music.
More specificly any views on the following would be appreciated:

1.  Having bought recently Kent Nagano's stunning account of Messiaen's
"Saint Francois d'Assise" (and listening to it instead of putting it in
my "in-tray" as some do) I am convinced that this is a truly masterpiece,
summing up all his styles and techniques and setting them in a fresh new
light.  How do others rate this opera vs his total output?

2.  What do people think of Messiaen's instrumentation techniques? To me,
from this point of view, Messiaen was a true genius with no limits to his
imagination while keeping it well checked under the guidance of a perfect
ear for sound quality and musicality.  Being one of the major forces in the
emancipation of percussion instruments in classical music, he is certainly
to be ranked with other instrumentation masters like Mozart, Ravel, Rimsky
Korsakov, Berg to name only a few.

3.  But for a few of his very early works Messiaen was never much tempted
by classical forms such as sonata or fugue.  Indeed, as Boulez put it:
"Messiaen doesn't compose, he juxtaposes".  By what ways did Messiaen
secure "structural integrity" of his works, and how far did he succeede?
Interestingly enough, his last work, the "Concert a Quatre" partially goes
back some of the older forms, e.g.  the final movement can be described as
some kind of rondo.

4.  Messiaen always made a point of perceiving harmony and colour as
two phenomena originating from the same source, i.e.  E major is a vast
Bordeaux red.  I must confess that my poor mortal mind doesn't quite follow
him there.  Is there anybody who can "enlighten" me?

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