Customer Reviews

Olivier Messiaen: Turangalila-Symphonie

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

To get an idea what this piece is like, imagine Ravel and ayoung Stravinsky (about the time of Le Sacre du Printemps) trying totop each other in a contest to produce the most fantastic piece. The result is a huge, rhythmically-dynamic piece with overly-opulent orchestration and near cinematic themes which has become Messiaen's most played piece. (It's nowhere near his best piece, however, and the Amazon review is wrong to call it a masterpiece.)

Despite the heavy layering of elements, it is not that difficult a piece to understand, however. Reading the excellent notes on this release will give you an idea what to listen for, and if all else fails you can just bathe in the wash of blissful sounds.

This performance contains a few minor bobbles (not surprising in such a piece) but overall catches the rapturous overkill of the piece. Messiaen speaks of joy when describing this piece, and Chung gives us alot of that along with a keen attention to detail. The sound is great, but, like alot of complex 20th century pieces, the better your stereo system, the more you're apt to hear.

Overall, not the only piece you'd want on a desert island--unless you intend to die in rhapsodic bliss six hours after arriving--but fun nonetheless. And this is the recording to have. END

To my knowledge, Messiaen never met a recording he wouldn't endorse, but this really is a superb recording of what is Messiaen's best known and perhaps best loved work. Chung approaches the score with the attention to fine detail that a complex 20th century score deserves while attaining the sweep and grandeur necessary to make this truly romantic work sing like only it can.

Francis Bacon said that in every beauty there is some proportion of strangeness. This beauty fell to earth from the stars, an alien--weird, startling, but wholly organic and fetching in its own chillingly unique way. Who can listen to Jardin du sommeil d'amour and fail to be touched? Chung brings a delicacy and spirituality to the whole that will leave you mesmerized and the contributions of Yvonne and Jeanne Loriod could not be more expert or authentic--no soloists know this score as they do, surely. This is one of the most successful of Chung's DG Messiaen recordings, and that's saying something.

This recording of the Turangalila Symphonie, which bears Messiaen's imprimatur, surely rests with the finest achievements of the century. The work is one of astonishing complexity, more akin to a fantastic piano concerto or showcase for the ondes martenot than a symphony. Cast into ten movements, the work seeks to portray, in Messiaen's own words, "[an] all at once love song, hymn to joy, time, movement, rhythm, life, and death." Widely touted as his seminal work, the symphony comes to life in this vivid and electrifying reading by Myung-Whun Chung. The recording is less perfect than others, but retains the fire and excitement of the piece faithfully. The ondes martenot, in particular, sounds mellow and soft, rather than strong and commanding. Despite some minor flaws, the reading is amazing, and, being recorded in Messiaen's presence, with his wife and sister-in-law on the piano and ondes martenot, it gives us a definitive account of what Messiaen himself would have wanted us to hear. The work bursts with life and energy, as befits a piece whose title can be loosely translated from the Sanskrit as meaning "speed of life." This particular disc has received wide accolades from several reputable sources, including "The Rough Guide to Classical Music" and "The Penguin Guide." As an advocate of 20th century music, I consider this piece and this reading essential. The two negative reviews on this site are disappointing in their ignorance, and I sincerely hope you won't let them steer you away from this beautiful and amazing work!

This music is absolutely intense. There is never a boring or overly repetitive moment. Anyone who doubts that Messiaen is one of this century's great composers needs to check out this work.

V. Wilson's review above is so entertaining that it's tempting not to add another word. "Rapturous overkill" indeed. But I wonder if Messiaen's monstrously long, lush, and clangorous Turangalila throws anybody off nowadays? I heard it in Carnegie Hall with the Philadelphia Orch. under Eschenbach, and nobody stirred a hair, not even a silver-gray hair. There are multiple choices among recordings, with a super-virtuosic one from Kent Nagano and the Berlin Phil. topping my personal list.

But I must admit that Chung's approach is more approachable: it manages the feat of being light on its feet, even jaunty when caled for, and the score's gaudy weirdness feels like a fresh new language instead, shorn of aimless exoticism. The hushed mystical sectins sound more genuine than I remember. As a result, Turangalila comes more sharply into focus, and Chung's musicians give it a distinctly Parisian suaveness and delicacy, along with real elan. I'd rank this CD very high among all the available recordings.

Don't let yourself be scared away if Boulez and Stravinsky don't and didn't appreciate this rhapsodic "symphony" - the history of art is full of such examples, Wolf/Brahms, Stravinsky/Schönberg, Tolstoy/Dostojevsky etc. etc. In terms of "absolute music" this doesn't appeal to me and I fail to understand the logic of composition. But who cares after all? The images this work creates in my mind are nevertheless fantastic, although it has not yet made me imagine a bordello: It is more like sailing in tropical seas, swimming under the sea in clear water a sunny day while colourful fishes are passing, eating fish in lemon and olive oil at a seaside restaurant in Greece as the sunshine, white wine and the glittering of the waves compete to intoxicate me. It is meditation, relaxation, hallucination, fantasy, mystery... it is holiday! With movements entitled 'Garden of the sleep of love' and 'Happiness of the blood of stars' and so on Messiaen himself invites us to let go of inhibitions and indulge in the dreamlike states of mind that this music invokes. The production and the direction is the very best and besides approved by the composer.

I think this is the best Turangalīla version and reason for this is conducting, orchestra, tempo and sound.

Chung had the opportunity to work togheter with Messiaen on this work and this is done like Messiaen himself like to have it(yes Messiaen made his last revisions on this symphony 1990 togheter with Chung).

You have a new one with Nagano on Teldec but this version is in my opinion richer in "coulour" and sound and its not going way to fast as I think Naganos version do.

Nagano knew and worked with Messiaen too but I think Chung is a far better conductor, Chung know this piece probably better than any other conductor and sound is great and so is tempo.

I highly recommend this version. You cant go wrong with this one

Messiaen himself writes of this performance: "This new version, superb from every point of view, can be considered henceforth the definitive account". Nothing more needs to be said.

While reading a partiular review of this recording, I was struck by the aptness of the reviewer's comment that the "Turangalila Symphony" creates an image of swimming in a clear ocean on a bright sunny day. This is a monumental piece, stretching out over ten movements and almost eighty minutes, yet there is an ethereal quality to its orchestration (perhaps due at least in part to the otherworldly sound of the Ondes Martenot) that gives it a light, shimmering quality even during its most brash moments. In each movement, Messiaen takes small melodic fragments and reworks them into an endless litany of subtle variations, an effect that often gives me the impression that the orchestra is undergoing some sort of strange metamorphosis. This is modern classical music, to be sure, but its simple and easily recognizable themes make it much more suitable for novice listeners: even my friends who have no interest in classical music have asked me to make copies of this CD. Although this is the only recording of the work that I have heard, I was impressed by Myung-Whun Chung's attention to detail and the many varied changes in color that he is able to bring out of his orchestra. In short, this is a masterwork of contemporary classical music, and a true listening experience to which I would give my highest reccomendation.

This wonderful work by Messiaen, one of his greatest pieces, along with the Quartet for the End of Time, is one of the highlights of my collection. Although I wouldn't consider this "easy listenin'" music, it has its moments where it goes Gershwiness, and its other moments when it sounds like a car crashing. This piece presented by the Orchestre d'opera bastille is probably the best recording that I have ever heard, with unparallel emotion and interpetation.