An organ student of the famous Marcel Dupré, Olivier Messiaen was appointed organist of La Trinité in Paris at the age of 22, a post he was to hold for the next 40 years. He was to become the most influential French composer in the second half of the 20th century. His innovative works for piano, with their vast range of fresh and new sonorities, have become part of the regular recital repertoire, a challenge to the virtuosity of any performer. They notably include works such as La Fauvette des jardins (‘The Garden Warbler’), based, like the earlier Catalogue d’oiseaux, on bird-song in an evocative landscape, a continuing source of inspiration.