Grady Harp
| 05/15/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Olivier Messiaen monumental ten movement, seventy-five minute opus TURANGALILA-SYMPHONIE is increasingly being accepted as one of the most important orchestral compositions of the twentieth century and spending time with this performance with Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra underlines that precis. Messiaen approaches music, whether orchestral, opera, chamber, or vocal, as a spiritual creation. Not that other composers do not enter this realm on occasion: Messiaen remains in the realm of nature, mysticism, spatial investigation and that most mysterious atmosphere of all - love.
Composed in the 1940s TURANGALILA explores the limits of the color palette and range of all of the standard orchestral instruments and then adds the Ondes Martenot and Piano to the mix. The result is a richly diverse panoply of aural experience that flows from cacophonous percussive sections to the barely audible gentle movements that include duets or echoes between piano and Ondes Martenot. Salonen unravels these mysterious threads better than anyone on record and the result is a work that is comprehensible and begs for repeated hearings. Paul Crossley sensitive renders the piano portions and Tristan Murail balances the fragile vagaries of the Ondes Martenot with grace and expressivity.