Essential Messiaen discs.

[teamsaint]

Ok, I have been quite good for a while, not bought much for at least a fortnight, but getting hold of some decent Messiaen on disc has been high up my " to do" list for quite a while. So, I'd love to have your advice on the good stuff, please. Anything at all, really, individual discs, advice on the various big boxes, and so on. Bargains welcome , of course !

Thanks.

TS

[MrGongGong]

Visions de l'Amen: Peter Hill (and Benjamin Frith) version.... Regis RRC 2056

[umslopogaas]

Quite a lot ...

Vingt regards sur l'Enfant Jesus. Peter Serkin. RCA.
Quartet for the end of time. Beroff, Gruenberg, de Peyer, Pleeth. EMI
Oiseaux Exotiques - Reveil des Oiseaux - La Bouscarle. Yvonne Loriod and the Czech PO, cond. Neumann. Supraphon.
Et Expecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum. Couleurs de la Cite Celeste. cond. Boulez. CBS
Turangalila Symphony (with Takemitsu: November Steps). Toronto SO cond. Ozawa. RCA
L'Ascension. LSO cond. Stokowski. Decca
La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jesus Christ. Soloists and National SO, Washington, cond. Dorati.
Les Corps Glorieux, le Banquet Celeste and La Nativite du Seigneur. Simon Preston, Argo (2 discs)
Le Banquet Celeste (with Dupre 3 preludes and fugues) Marcel Dupre. Mercury.
Vision de l'Amen. John Ogdon and Brenda Lucas. Argo

All on LP, but I expect they have been transferred to CD.

There are others, but these are particularly special to me. The Ozawa Turangalila was my introduction to Messiaen's music and still impresses, though I think there is a Previn version that is even more hi-fi.

[Dave2002]

There are others, but these are particularly special to me. The Ozawa Turangalila was my introduction to Messiaen's music and still impresses, though I think there is a Previn version that is even more hi-fi.

I first got to hear this from the Ozawa recording, but I thought some of the later movements were very scrappily played. The Previn version was considerably better IMO, and I recall going to the Proms when I believe it was Previn who conducted the work - very good indeed. It wasn't the "hi-fi" -ness of the recording which made Previn's better - it was the standard of playing - unless I misunderstood the music, and it really is supposed to sound like Ozawa's version.

Wasn't the recording made around the time that recording companies were transitioning from analogue to digital - it might in fact be an analogue recording?

Re the last point - it seems it might have been made in multi-channel versions - at least at the master stage - see http://www.discogs.com/Messiaen-Andr...elease/2622357 and from the date was probably an analogue recording.

[Serial_Apologist]

The Ozawa Turangalila was my introduction to Messiaen's music and still impresses, though I think there is a Previn version that is even more hi-fi.

Lo-fi thought it is, I prefer the Maurice Le Roux-conducted version with, is it the ORTF Orchestra? - recorded in the late 1950s, in particular because it both focuses on detail in the more abstract timbre-and-rhythmic passages/movements that connect the work with that of the up and coming Boulez generation of his pupils, and for me manages to drain most of the excess saccharine out of the cringeingly overblown passages, such as the main "Chant of Love" theme and the "Joy of the Stars' Blood " movement.

[MrGongGong]

The Jennifer Bate : Nativite du Seigner Regis 1086

is rather good

[BBMmk2]

The complete Jennifer Bate organ cycle on Regis, a must have. Previn's account of Turangalila. Boulez Et Expecto......

[makropulos]

Some of mine:
La Transfiguration, De Leeuw (Naive) or Dorati (Decca)
Des Canyons aux étoiles, Constant (Erato)
Vingt Regards, Osborne (Hyperion) or Muraro (Accord CD, or the video recording made at Petichet)
Poèmes pour Mi, Palmer/Boulez (Decca)
Harawi, Bunlet/Messian (INA - fascinating to hear the work sung by Bunlet, for whose voice Messiaen conceived the work)
La Nativité, Susan Landale (Adda)
Oiseaux exotiques, Loriod/Albert (world prem, reissued on Accord in the Boulez Domaine musical box)

But for a terrific bargain, it's hard to do much better than the EMI centenary box: well-remastered versions of Messiaen's own recordings of organ works, Béroff's Vingt Regards and Préludes, all the voice and piano songs from Michèle Command, Argerich and Rabonovich in Visions de l'Amen, Previn's Turangalia, Dorati's Chronochromie, Rattle's Éclairs and so on...

[Richard Barrett]

I'm glad not to have got here so late as not to have something to add... the big Erato set of 18 (IIRC) CDs is really a must, if it's still available. The complete organ works played by Olivier Latry (DG) is probably the best organ recording I've ever heard, quite apart from the music and performances which are also wonderful. I also got to know Turangalîla courtesy of Ozawa but there are much better performances/recordings around now (Previn isn't among them IMO), including a brand new one with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hannu Lintu (don't take my word for it, read any review).

[jayne lee wilson]

Peter Hill's Complete Piano Music on Regis is La Grande Reference, but seek out Anatol Ugorski on DG for a thrillingly different take on Catalogue d'Oiseaux - dramatic, virtuoso, self-expressive nature music. Ugorski felt born to it... Messiaen called birdsong "the true, lost face of music, somewhere off in the forest..."

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Catalogue-Doiseaux-Ugorski-Olivier-Messiaen/dp/B000025WS6/ref=sr_1_17?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1429067845&sr=1-17&keywords=ugorski

As soon as I heard Nagano with the LSO premiering Eclairs sur L'Au-dela , Messiaen's last, late, great orchestral masterpiece, I knew that I loved it...
You asked for the Essential Messiaen; this IS Messiaen, pared back to the essence: Birdsongs of Earth, Adagios of Heaven, Apocalyptic Cosmic Climaxes.

Several gorgeous recordings singing vividly of Last Things - L'Opera Bastille/Chung on DG, Sydney SO/Porcelijn on ABC, VPO/Metzmacher on Kairos, and Rattle with the BPO on EMI. Go for Metzmacher, Chung or Rattle for the most sensuous sonic evocations. (Just one? Metzmacher). It's a work that haunts me, that I carry around, somewhere in the back of my mind (when it's not occupied by Sibelius or Nielsen this year...)...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001D6UM8K/ref=dm_rogue_cd

***

Check this out for some first-rate Messiaen performances, and some marvellous compositional commentary on the music itself...

http://www.eclassical.com/horizon-2-a-tribute-to-olivier-messiaen-live.html

You can read the notes on eClassical, but if you just have to buy it, Qobuz is cheaper...

http://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/horizon-2-a-tribute-to-olivier-messiean-royal-concertgebouw-orchestra/5425008376875?qref=dac_6

[Bryn]

(less than £60 including p&p from amazon.co.uk) is, for me, very much on the essential list. O.k. for me there were many, many duplicates, but also many recordings I had considered in their separate releases but could not afford.

My favourite recorded performance of Éclairs sur l'au-delà... remains the LSO/Nagano (BBC Radio 3 FM sources in my case) referred to by JLW, with Porcelijn a close second (wow! those bass drum thwacks in Les Sept Anges aux sept trompettes!

Not heard the Lihtu Turangalîla-Symphonie yet, but would put in a word for Mena.

Otherwise I can but concur with Makropulos's selection.

I do, it must be admitted, have a vast collection of Messiaen recordings. Damn it! I even have around half a dozen of Fête des belles eaux. Oh to have been old enough to have been by the Seine during the first (an only?) performance replete with original lumiere contribution.

[Pulcinella]

Like many others on this thread, I grew up with the Ozawa LP recording of Turangalila. (As an aside, it must have been one of his first recordings. I have a distant memory of seeing him in Liverpool conduct a Beethoven 9 with Rita Hunter as one of the soloists right after he won a competition; any better memory than mine around?)

And I have much of what has been mentioned above on my shelves.
Organ works (Gillian Weir: Collins)
Des canyons aux etoiles/Oiseaux exotiques/Couleurs de la cite celeste (London Sinfonietta/Salonen: vivid memories of a concert performance of Des canyons by the LS in the Sheldonian in Oxford (the poster adorned my student room walls for a long time!))
Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum/Couleurs de la cite celeste (Boulez; single CD now going begging, as duplicated in the big Sony box)
Turangalila (Chailly; Previn; Salonen; Fischer (BBC Music Magazine))
Quartet for the end of time (Amici Ensemble on Naxos, c/w Theme and Variations; DG version with Barenboim)
Vingt regards (Austbo)
La transfiguration (Dorati)/La nativite (Preston)
and, on other BBC Music Magazine CDs, O sacrum convivium and Cinq rechants (BBC Singers), La Nativite (Hakim), and L'ascension (orchestral version; BBCSSO/Jurowski)

But sadly none of this is for me remotely essential.
Perhaps this thread will (re)awaken an interest, though, as teamsaint knows, I'm avidly awaiting some Arnold Chamber Music, which will certainly jump to the top of the listening queue.

But as ever I am interested in what others think (even if I disagree).

[umslopogaas]

Re the Ozawa recording of Turangalila, it is a 2 LP RCA (English RCA, manufactured by Decca) set dated 1967. "RCA Victor Red Seal Dynagroove Recording" but it doesnt say whether it is digital or analogue: I thought digital recording didnt arrived until the mid 1970s, but I dont know much of these things, does anyone know more?

Bryn, that DG box looks very tempting, can you post the serial number to help my local record shop take some more of my money?

[Pulcinella]

Re the Ozawa recording of Turangalila, it is a 2 LP RCA (English RCA, manufactured by Decca) set dated 1967. "RCA Victor Red Seal Dynagroove Recording" but it doesnt say whether it is digital or analogue: I thought digital recording didnt arrived until the mid 1970s, but I dont know much of these things, does anyone know more?

The image on the back of the (reissued) CD, just containing Turangalila, looks to me like it claims to be DIGITAL (but the resolution on my screen is not great).

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Turangalila-Symphony-Ozawa-Toronto-So/dp/B0001TSWM8

[Bryn]

Re the Ozawa recording of Turangalila, it is a 2 LP RCA (English RCA, manufactured by Decca) set dated 1967. "RCA Victor Red Seal Dynagroove Recording" but it doesnt say whether it is digital or analogue: I thought digital recording didnt arrived until the mid 1970s, but I dont know much of these things, does anyone know more?

Bryn, that DG box looks very tempting, can you post the serial number to help my local record shop take some more of my money?

It's 480 1333 but do not expect to get it for anything much like the amazon.Co.UK price. At Presto Classical, for instance, it is nearly twice the price#