Messiaen

[Bryn]

I'm going to stick my head up here and say that Andre Previn's recording of Turangalila is ther best one, as I have heard a fair few now.

It's a very fine recording of unrevised score. The DVD audio of the 4 channel original mix (it was in SQ on the LP issue) is really effective. However, I find Nagano, Fischer and Mena who all used the revised score marginally more to my liking.

[Richard Barrett]

I've just been listening to some of Eschenbach's Des canyons... which sounds a little like everyone's playing it safe, even though the horn soloist (John Ryan) has a beautiful sound. The second movement doesn't really begin as if it's "written in the stars". I'm not sure how I would actually ask players to make it sound like that if I were conducting, but I think I know it when I hear it...

[Bryn]

With Turangalila, for me it has to be Le Roux on the 1950s recording, notwithstanding sound quality deficiences: unlike most of the rest I've heard, he makes the more "abstract" movements the work's kernel, (connecting its music with the more radical music he was contemporaneously opening new vistas through), doesn't overdo the bits it's all too easy to overdo, or hang around too long in the, ahem, Garden of Love.

Small point; the Le Roux was actually recorded 11th and 13th October 1961. It just sounds more like a 1950s recording.

[gurnemanz]

I'm going to stick my head up here and say that Andre Previn's recording of Turangalila is ther best one, as I have heard a fair few now.

I'll join you there. Turangalila was one of my first classical orchestral concerts as a 19 year old student at the Festival Hall in 1969, conducted by Charles Groves with Yvonne Loriod and John Ogdon. This concert helped to make the work a bit special for me but I seem to have lived off the memory of that concert for rather a long time because I didn't get a recording until I opted for Previn on CD nearly three decades later.

[Bryn]

I'll join you there. Turangalila was one of my first classical orchestral concerts as a 19 year old student at the Festival Hall in 1969, conducted by Charles Groves with Yvonne Loriod and John Ogdon. This concert helped to make the work a bit special for me but I seem to have lived off the memory of that concert for rather a long time because I didn't get a recording until I opted for Previn on CD nearly three decades later.

I take it you have a recording of that Groves performance. I well remember the delight of watching and listening to him during the morning rehearsals for that Prom.

[BBMmk2]

I'll join you there. Turangalila was one of my first classical orchestral concerts as a 19 year old student at the Festival Hall in 1969, conducted by Charles Groves with Yvonne Loriod and John Ogdon. This concert helped to make the work a bit special for me but I seem to have lived off the memory of that concert for rather a long time because I didn't get a recording until I opted for Previn on CD nearly three decades later.

I didn't know Sir Charles conducted Messiaen, even! Thanks Gurnemanz. I sawe Rattle conduct this at The Dome in Brighton, many moons ago. Not a suitable venue for this work but they staged it!

[Bryn]

I didn't know Sir Charles conducted Messiaen, even! Thanks Gurnemanz. I sawe Rattle conduct this at The Dome in Brighton, many moons ago. Not a suitable venue for this work but they staged it!

You have not been following this board closely enough then. See http://www.for3.org/forums/showthrea...337#post168337 for instance. There are minor blemishes in the recorded broadcast, but they are as nought compared with the debt of gratitude owed to Clive for his restoration work on it, and for making it available to us all.

[gurnemanz]

It occurs to me that a few years ago we were pleased to happen upon this plaque while wandering round the Église Saint Didier in Avignon, where it turned out that Messiaen was baptised on Christmas Day in 1908.

[Richard Barrett]

Returning to Des canyons..., I returned yesterday to the Constant recording. There are so many good things in this performance. Although the treacherous trumpet part in the penultimate movement is really not one of them (I wonder why Messiaen doesn't use a piccolo trumpet for this section), everything is so sharply characterised and beautiful - these were the sounds that came to mind when I made my own "pilgrimage" to Bryce Canyon, Cedar Breaks and Zion Park 25 years after Messiaen did. Today I'll be listening to Chung's recording.

[Bryn]

Returning to Des canyons..., I returned yesterday to the Constant recording. There are so many good things in this performance. Although the treacherous trumpet part in the penultimate movement is really not one of them (I wonder why Messiaen doesn't use a piccolo trumpet for this section), everything is so sharply characterised and beautiful - these were the sounds that came to mind when I made my own "pilgrimage" to Bryce Canyon, Cedar Breaks and Zion Park 25 years after Messiaen did. Today I'll be listening to Chung's recording.

I'd like to read your opinion of the George Benjamin directed 2004 Proms performance of the work. This was televised and I have it on DVD-R. I thought it very fine.

[Richard Barrett]

Hmmm, ok... but first Myung-Whun Chung. Everything is in its right place, including the aforementioned trumpet, and the recording is all one could wish for. But I prefer the frequent "marginal" instrumental sounds (bowing on the "wrong side" of the bridge, playing woodwinds with teeth on the reed etc.) a bit more upfront, and not massaged into the textures as Chung does somewhat. I emerged from it more convinced that Marius Constant back in the 1970s really had the vision of this music in his mind and the ability to communicate it to his players. I guess I'm going to have to listen to Benjamin and de Leeuw now with deep teethmarks on the proverbial bullet.

[DublinJimbo]

Thanks to everyone who directed me to the Marius Constant recording of Des canyons aux étoiles. I found it readily enough on Qobuz and decided to stream what I originally intended would be just a sampling. I couldn't stop. This is superb stuff.

Thanks again.

[BBMmk2]

Thanks to everyone who directed me to the Marius Constant recording of Des canyons aux étoiles. I found it readily enough on Qobuz and decided to stream what I originally intended would be just a sampling. I couldn't stop. This is superb stuff.

Thanks again.

Been meaning to make a comment about this recording and people have saved me from doing so. Thanks! Will have a look.

[jayne lee wilson]

Returning to Des canyons..., I returned yesterday to the Constant recording. There are so many good things in this performance. Although the treacherous trumpet part in the penultimate movement is really not one of them (I wonder why Messiaen doesn't use a piccolo trumpet for this section), everything is so sharply characterised and beautiful - these were the sounds that came to mind when I made my own "pilgrimage" to Bryce Canyon, Cedar Breaks and Zion Park 25 years after Messiaen did. Today I'll be listening to Chung's recording.

I was delighted to find what must be the original issue Eratos of the Marius Constant 2ndhand, as unless well remastered they almost always sound better than reissues....(& I hate big boxes anyway...)...
Still a few left.....

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00JI1OMGA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Finding time to listen to it will be quite a different matter....

[BBMmk2]

I was delighted to find what must be the original issue Eratos of the Marius Constant 2ndhand, as unless well remastered they almost always sound better than reissues....(& I hate big boxes anyway...)...
Still a few left.....

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00JI1OMGA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Finding time to listen to it will be quite a different matter....

I have Myun-Whun Chung's recording on DG. Would that surpass my recording?

NB Just read Richard Barrett's post above! Not bad a price at £11.99 as well.