Olivier Messiaen: Turangalîla-Symphonie (1993)
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano; Takashi Harada, ondes martenot
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, conducted by Riccardo Chailly
EAC | FLAC | Tracks (Cue&Log) ~ 358 Mb | Mp3 (CBR320) ~ 175 Mb | Scans ~ 44 Mb
Genre: Classical | Label: Decca | # 436 626-2 | Time: 01:16:36
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano; Takashi Harada, ondes martenot
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, conducted by Riccardo Chailly
EAC | FLAC | Tracks (Cue&Log) ~ 358 Mb | Mp3 (CBR320) ~ 175 Mb | Scans ~ 44 Mb
Genre: Classical | Label: Decca | # 436 626-2 | Time: 01:16:36
Along with Wit's Naxos recording, this is one of the best versions of Messiaen's phantasmagoric Turangalîla-Symphonie available, and it's very different: swifter, more obviously virtuosic in concept, perhaps a touch less warm in consequence, and engineered with greater “in your face” immediacy. The playing of the Concertgebouw, always a wonderful Messiaen orchestra, is stunning throughout. Chailly revels in the music's weirdness. The Ondes Martinot, for example, is particularly well captured. It's interesting how earlier performances tended to minimize its presence, perhaps for fear that is would sound silly, which of course it does, redeemed by the composer's utter seriousness and obliviousness to anything that smacks of humor. In any case, it's not all noise and bluster. The Garden of Love's Sleep is gorgeous, hypnotic, but happily still flowing, while the three Turangalîla rhythmic studies have remarkable clarity. Jean-Yves Thibaudet plays the solo piano part magnificently, really as well as anyone else ever has.