I don't like most 20th century and modern music. This is probably due to lack exposure. When I have the money, I usually buy Baroque and Classical CD's, with a sprinkling or Romantic and Modern. I do try to keep an open mind, however. So when, a few months ago, a List member recommended a three CD Naxos recording of Messaien's "Catalogue d'oiseaux" and "Petites esquisses d'oiseaux" (8.553532-34), I figured, what the hey, I'll give it a shot. I was happily surprised at how much I enjoyed the recording. I guess that one of the things that holds me back from listening to modern music is that I like the beginning to the end, logical sequence I find in Baroque and Classical music. Messiaen's music is anything but. Ian commented: >I don't judge "structural integrity" in technical terms, but by the sense >I get of a coherent logic in a piece - a central core and everything else >fitting and making sense around it. A kind of inevitable "right-ness" >about the way the music hangs together. This is close to how I feel when I listen to the music. Although not a "birder," I've always loved the songs and calls of birds, especially the caroling of robins in Spring and Summer mornings. When I hear birds singing, I feel that I've come into the concert hall after the performance has begun, but do not feel as if I've missed anything. In the informative booklet that comes with the Naxos discs, the author mentions that Messiaen "turned what had been an absorbing interest (since the age of fifteen) into an exhaustive, in-depth study" and became "a well-respected ornithological expert." He liked to call birds "the greatest musicians on our planet," and tried in this music to to make an exact transposition of what he heard, "but on a more human scale." So, I would think that in any discussion of his music, Messiaen's solo piano work should be included. Ron Chaplin