Search - Olivier Messiaen, Riccardo Chailly, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra :: Olivier Messiaen: Turangalîla Symphony

A ravishing, cogent reading that vies for first place

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 10/06/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Messiaen is difficult to get right, I think, even though it is very easy to get the audience's attention, because his idiom is splashy and exotic. Even though I know that he is vastly admired by major conductors from Ozawa and Rattle, who signed on to Turanglila when quite young, to Rattle and Levine, who conduct many of his works in depth. Yet I get restless at all of tis throwing around of sound that seems to have no deeper purpose or structure. Here is a reading to make me a convert. Chailly seems to do everything right. His pacing is swift, his touch light. Nothing sounds turgid or bottom-heavy. But more than that, he organizes each episode in this very episodic work so that it makes sense, drawing together into cogent sections.



The contrast is really remarkable compared to even the best of his rivals. I never imagined that the faintly sleazy flavor of Messiaen's faux-Asian effects, combined with the sci-fi eeriness of th ondes mrtenot, could be overcome. In fact, Chailly is so conversant with the score that he assimilates even its strangest sounds into music you can take seriously (if I may be so bold) rather than swimming along in a warm bath of exoticism. There's power and propulsion here, and one see immediately why Chailly is also so good with Varese, whose music also hides under a veneer of sound-as-sound. In short, this is a spectacular reading, delivered in spectacular sound. I couldn't be more enthusiastic."