A Definitive Take

This is aguably a definitive recording of Messiaen's Turangalila Symphony. Performed by the Orchestre de L'Opera Bastille conducted by Myung-Whun Chung, it was recorded in the presence of the composer and features his muse Yvonne Loriod playing the pivotal piano part and Jeanne Loriod on the distinctive ondes martenot. The score played here is also a revision by Messiaen that could be looked upon as a final thought on the piece. Not a symphony in the classical meaning of the term, Turangalila is a sanskrit word with meanings of play, love and time. Another attraction of this release is that the booklet notes are by Messiaen himself and he descibes the meaning as being all at once a love song, hymn to joy, time, movement, rhythm, life and death. As mentioned, the piano has a prominent part to play and there are the references to bird song and the night sky typical of Messiaen but also what appear to me to be jazzy touches. The quieter piano passages of the piece tend to be longer and there are brash exuberent linking passages featuring the orchestral colours more fully along with the weirdness of the ondes martenot, a very early electronic keyboard device. But really, the detailed explanation by the composer in his notes with this disk don't require much elaboration from me. In this retrospective trawl through my collection, I have found that I possibly have a couple more Messiaen disks than I need for my tastes but there's always time to listen to this and to the Quartet For The End Of Time.