Bertrand Chamayou is a thoughtful artist, one who takes his time between recordings and has never put a foot wrong as a result. Following superb recordings of Saint-Saëns’ concertos and a charming disc of lullabies, the French pianist has turned his attention to an Everest of the repertoire: Olivier Messiaen’s reflective, yet fiendishly challenging Vingt Regards sur L’enfant-Jésus. Clive Paget caught up with Chamayou over Zoom to discuss his relationship with the music of Messiaen, and his approach to the composer’s series of 20 colourful meditations on aspects of the Nativity.

When did you first encounter Messiaen’s music?

I was very, very young, actually. When I started to play the piano, I had a friend, who was a little bit older than me and a more advanced pianist. He was kind of a model for me, and he had some scores I didn’t have. I was probably nine when I opened the score of Vingt Regards sur L’Enfant-Jésus in his music library, let’s say, and I was fascinated by what I saw: these complex chords with flats and sharps – and big chords everywhere. I didn’t know much about Messiaen; I’d never heard his music at that time. I just...