Without a doubt, it is urgent to get back to essentials, to retrace the path from the canyons to the stars, to celebrate ‘the beauties of the earth (its rocks, its birdsongs), the beauties of the material sky, the beauties of the spiritual sky’ as Messiaen writes at the head of his score. According to Jean-François Heisser, ‘there is a grandeur in this work that sweeps aside reservations about the composer ; something in the music escapes us and instantly grips the audience’. One cannot deny this work exemplifies the ‘too big for me’ of which Gilles Deleuze spoke. That is why it must be heard, that is why this new recording was necessary.