Influenced by his unwavering Catholic faith and a fascination with birdsong, Olivier Messiaen’s extraordinary compositions invite listeners into a unique soundworld. Taking inspiration from his own experiences of synaesthesia—as well as Japanese traditional music, the landscape of the western United States, and perhaps most famously, his time as a prisoner of war in the 1940s—Messiaen created works that are fresh, thought-provoking, and never, ever dull. Among his most performed pieces are Quartet for the End of Time and Turangalîla-Symphonie, while his organ music is a major contribution to the genre.