Olivier Messiaen: Turangalīla Symphony [Original recording remastered]

Olivier Messiaen (Composer), Seiji Ozawa (Conductor), Toronto Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra), Yvonne Loriod (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Yvonne Loriod
• Orchestra: Toronto Symphony Orchestra
• Conductor: Seiji Ozawa
• Composer: Olivier Messiaen
• Audio CD (April 20, 2004)
• SPARS Code: ADD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: RCA
• ASIN: B0001TSWM8
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #187,321 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's About Time, May 13, 2004

By 

Daniel Cormier (Connecticut, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Olivier Messiaen: Turangalīla Symphony (Audio CD)

This has been the recording by which all Turangalila recordings have been judged since its original release more than 35 years ago. None have eclipsed it. Chung softens the edges, Previn hides the beauty. Nagano is good but the orchestra is dull while Wit would have had a great recording had the group been able to play in tune. Seiji beats them hands down. The performance is vigorous and intense and he is not afraid to show the ferocity or the beauty of the piece. The soloists perform well and the young Ozawa brings a youthful touch to recording that is at once refreshing and insightful. The TSO really play well as a group and are not timorous in any way. I have been nursing an LP of this for years and this release is very overdue. I have long wanted to play this in my car or on my iPod and thankfully, now I can.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars historical importance, but not the best, February 13, 2005

By 

T. Herion (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Olivier Messiaen: Turangalīla Symphony (Audio CD)

Many Messiaen fans have been waiting for RCA to release this historic recording on CD. Although the sound has been remastered, the interpretation and playing is still unsatisfactory.

For some reason the orchestra is not able to handle the incredible technical demands placed on them by the score. There are a number of places where the instruments are not together, particularly during ritards (which are incredibly over- done to my taste). The tempos are also taken so slow as to zap much of the energy right out of what could be incredibly ecstatic music. I have a feeling that the tempos were determined more to fit the orchestra's capabilities than to fit the musical aesthetic.

Just to be clear, I consider the Turangalila to be a masterpiece in its own right, and the Seiji Ozawa recording is important in that it is the first, but there have been much better recordings since. I highly recommend the Concertgebow recording.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Seething Passion From the Young Ozawa, December 10, 2008

By 

Johannes Climacus "Listening for Enjoyment" (Beverly, Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Olivier Messiaen: Turangalīla Symphony (Audio CD)

We usually think of Seiji Ozawa's musical passions as "recollected in tranquillity," and for this reason it is valuable to have recorded evidence of a vastly different conductor, before the decline into staleness and tedium that marked his final years with the BSO. On the evidence of this production from 1967, Ozawa in his younger days could galvanize even a less than world-class ensemble (sorry, Toronto--but you're not quite in the same league as the BSO) into performing at the highest pitch of passionate abandon. if ever a score called for such abandon, it is Messiaen's *Turangalila*, a work of such seething erotic *jouissance* as to make Stravinsky's *Le Sacre du Printemps* seem like the proverbial "Sunday school picnic."

There have been numerous accounts of *Turangalila* since Ozawa's pioneering effort in 1967 (the first really viable version of the stereo era), but none have surpassed Ozawa for the ideal balance of elemental power and discipline. The Toronto orchestra surpass themselves on this occasion with playing of mind-boggling accuracy, vibrancy and virtuosity, even at Ozawa's bracing tempos in movements such as the Introduction, "Joie du sang des étoiles," and the exhaustingly intense Finale (among others). Ozawa secures remarkably clean textures--at times you can hear nearly everything that's going on in Messiaen's multi-layered musical universe, with resulting sensory overload (in which every lover of the score will surely revel). Throughout the long haul of ten movements, the all-important piano and ondes Martinot parts are superbly dispatched by the Loriod sisters in their prime. I also appreciate the way Ozawa balances the ondes; its singular timbre is audible when it needs to be, yet never obtrudes or dominates the texture unduly. The piano is more closely balanced than is ideal, perhaps, but with such distinguished playing by the foremost interpreter of this key "role" in the Sacred Drama, I am not inclined to complain.

Ozawa's classic account of *Turangalila* is in truth an exhilarating experience. Only the time-suspending "Jardin du sommeil d'amour" disappoints to some extent; one longs for greater sensuous allure--that singular combination of opulence and intense concentration--than Ozawa's unexpectedly sober account provides. Previn, whose reading of this work represents another benchmark, is at his most convincing in this movement. But that minor blemish should by no means deter prospective listeners from seeking out this first-rate (dare I say unsurpassed?) performance of Messiaen's masterpiece. The remastered recording is nothing short of stunning in its visceral impact and amplitude. Recent digital versions, such as Chung on DG and Nagano on Warner, may provide plusher sonics, with enhanced firmness in the bass register, but otherwise the sound on this RCA "Red Seal" reissue is exemplary.

Not to be missed.