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Messiaen suggestions

C

Cuyahoga

pfm Member
OK, hivemind, over the last year or so I have got the hang of much of his piano music (Vingt Regards, Preludes, Visions l'Amen, the bird pieces, etc) and want to venture into his larger scale music. I already have a couple of versions of Quatuor pour la fin du Temps.

Suggestions please for good versions of Turangalila and Des Canyons aux Etoile please?
 
For Turangalila, if you can get hold of the Maurice Le Roux version on original Vega or Decca vinyl that is superb. However the consensus is that the CD transfer was a disaster.
Also the Louis de Froment version for a good earlier French recording. The Previn version linked above is also one of the best and that cd is a bargain. I would still urge you to see out Le Roux because there is something quite unique and special about it and it apparently shows the style of a French orchestra of that period like no other recording does. It has a dreamlike grandeur that is major contrast with the more mechanical sounding Rattle version which I originally got to know the work from.
 
Aaah well, following that Amazon link has resulted in the purchase of some Ligeti as well as the Previn Turangalila etc (I've thought about that coupled Quatuor previously so that was a help).
 
Cuyahoga said:
Suggestions please for good versions of Turangalila and Des Canyons aux Etoile please?
Click to expand...

It seems I am a bit late for the Turangalila, but here is a recommendation for Des Canyons aux Etoiles.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Messiaen-Canyons-Myung-Whun-Orchestra-Philharmonique/dp/B00IDMGT6G/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1420571803&sr=8-3&keywords=DEs+canyons+aux+Etoiles+chung

Myung Whun Chung's Turangalila is also very good (although the sound quality could be better - the orchestra is a bit distant or compressed, not sure which). MWC was a student of Messiaen and close to his entourage (Loriod, Lefebure).

Edit: double post with alanbeeb, so late for this one too.
 
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Thanks chaps!

Will check out the Myung Whun Chung.

Lenny, having grown up with a very good church organ I have found it very hard to listen to organ music on a domestic set up (or at least one I can afford or accommodate). And I recognise my inconsistency here...What with asking about large scale orchestral music...Mebbe I need to re-jig my preconceptions.
 
I once sat through Steven Osborne playing the Vingt Regards. I was reading the programme notes telling me that Messiaen composed them while hiding from the Germans in Paris. By the time we got to the dixième Regard, I was wishing the Gestapo had found him sooner.
 
One of my all time favourite records is Jennifer Bate playing La Nativité. For me (and the composer when he heard it) c'est vraiment parfait.
 
Have had a couple of listens to the Previn Turangalila now.

I'd previously (tee hee) heard the piece on a Beeb TV programme and thought it an incomprehensible mess. I was unsure if that was the particular performance or (as per a previous comment) something to do with quality of broadcast TV sound which seems to cut off a lot of lower frequencies.

It most definitely makes sense in this recording, whether that is the quality of the performance (I have a liking for Previn and the LSO of that era) or that the recording does make a decent fist of lower frequencies I know not...

The Loriod et alia Quatuor is a goody.

Ah well, off to MDT to sort out the Myung Whun Chung Des Canyons...
 
I think Esa Pekka Salonen,s Canyons is very good, it also comes with a superb Oiseaux Exotiques with is my favourite of his "bird" pieces as well as Couleurs de la Celestial City.
 
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