condition (record/cover): NM / EX+ - Gatefold sleeve.  Olivier Messiaen appears on Erato with Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum / Couleurs De La Cité Céleste, two works that confirm his position as the twentieth century's supreme composer of sacred music. "And I await the resurrection of the dead" sets the Nicene Creed's promise into orchestral stone; "Colors of the Celestial City" derives its palette from the Book of Revelation.

Messiaen never doubted. Where other composers agonized over faith's possibility in the modern world, he simply believed, and his music radiates that certainty. The orchestration draws on his synesthetic perception, those colors he claimed to see when hearing certain chords. Whether listeners share his visions or not, the sonic splendor remains undeniable. Erato's recording captures the massive forces these works demand, brass and woodwinds and percussion summoning the heavenly Jerusalem.