Messiaen: Turangalîla-Symphonie (2012)

performed by Cynthia Millar (ondes martenot), Steven Osborne (piano), Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Juanjo Mena (conductor)
composed by Olivier Messiaen

Juanjo Mena leads the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in a crisply precise reading of Messiaen's massive Turangalîla-Symphonie, and Hyperion's engineers capture that precision with gleaming brilliance and exceptional detail. It's reasonable to question, though, whether Turangalîla-Symphonie is a piece that fares best in such an immaculate performance. The symphony is notable for many things, including its length, number of movements, formal organization, and exotic instrumentation, but not least for its emotional wildness, ... Read More

Juanjo Mena leads the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in a crisply precise reading of Messiaen's massive Turangalîla-Symphonie, and Hyperion's engineers capture that precision with gleaming brilliance and exceptional detail. It's reasonable to question, though, whether Turangalîla-Symphonie is a piece that fares best in such an immaculate performance. The symphony is notable for many things, including its length, number of movements, formal organization, and exotic instrumentation, but not least for its emotional wildness, kinetic volatility, and explosive, sometimes messy exuberance. These last are characteristics that Mena has to sacrifice to some extent to achieve this clean, controlled performance, which is absolutely faithful to the letter of the score but that sometimes misses its spirit. The Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra plays with the chops of a world-class orchestra, with remarkable technical facility and gorgeous tone, especially in the strings. This is certainly a performance that Messiaen... Read Less