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Messiaen: Turangalila Symphony [Steven Osborne/ Cynthia Millar/ Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra / Juanjo Mena] [Hyperion: CDA67816]

Steven Osborne Audio CD
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
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Steven Osborne is one of Britain’s foremost musicians, renowned for his idiomatic approach to a wide variety of repertoire from the mainstream classical works of Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms to the rarefied worlds of Messiaen, Tippett and Britten. He has won numerous awards and prizes including the 2009 Gramophone Award for his recording of Britten’s works for piano and orchestra, ... Read more in Amazon's Steven Osborne Store

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Frequently Bought Together

Messiaen: Turangalila Symphony [Steven Osborne/ Cynthia Millar/ Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra / Juanjo Mena] [Hyperion: CDA67816] + Handel: Saul
Price For Both: £39.50

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Product details

  • Conductor: Juanjo Mena
  • Composer: Olivier Messiaen
  • Audio CD (30 July 2012)
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Label: Hyperion
  • ASIN: B008B3P4MC
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 90,241 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

1. Turangalila-Symphonie Introduction [6'03]
2. Turangalila-Symphonie Chant damour 1 [8'06]
3. Turangalila-Symphonie Turangalîla 1 [5'49]
4. Turangalila-Symphonie Chant damour 2 [10'24]
5. Turangalila-Symphonie Joie du sang des étoiles [6'42]
6. Turangalila-Symphonie Jardin du sommeil damour [12'41]
7. Turangalila-Symphonie Turangalila 2 [3'40]
8. Turangalila-Symphonie Developpement de lamour [11'33]
9. Turangalila-Symphonie Turangalîla 3 [4'32]
10. Turangalila-Symphonie Final [7'30]

Product Description

Review

What a life-enhancing piece it all is! Buy, read and applaud. --IRR, July/Aug'12

Messiaen's vast Turangalîla-Symphonie was an uncompromising declaration of postwar aesthetic vitality, vibrant of colour and shocking of aspect. With its turbulent maelstrom of hammering piano, stormy strings, shrieking staccato brass, splashy cymbals and whining ondes Martenot, it's easy to see why it was compared to The Rite of Spring. It's a mountainous task for any pianist, but Steven Osborne copes faultlessly here, negotiating the bustle of the more intense movements with precision and smooth power, while the more reflective passages such as the "Jardin du Sommeil d'amour" are treated with fluid grace and understanding. --Independent,28/07/12

Sept'12

Is it surprising that Pierre Boulez, life-long champion of Messiaen, should have consistently shunned Turangalîla? This swoony, swoopy, wacky, woofy celebration of the life-force is not what Messiaen's modernist fans want to hear. Thanks to its earthy sensuality, tuneful kitsch and incantatory languor, it appeals primarily to the emotions, and live performances tend to be ecstatic affairs. The virtue of this studio recording is, paradoxically, that it doesn t get carried away. The balance of instrumental sound is exemplary, without compromising atmosphere or momentum, and there are virtuoso contributions from Steven Osborne in the easily overlooked piano part and from Cynthia Millar on ondes martenot, the instrument that gives Turangalîla its peculiar colour and of which Millar is the prime exponent. **** --Financial Times,10/08/12

Steven Osborne brings authority to the piano cadenzas and poetry to the filagree passages, while the orchestra players are clearly having fun. Performance **** Recording **** --BBC Music Magazine, Sept'12

No other conductor gets inside Messiaen's overlapping currents of cyclic time like Mena. GRAMOPHONE CHOICE --Gramophone, Oct'12

Steven Osborne brings authority to the piano cadenzas and poetry to the filagree passages, while the orchestra players are clearly having fun. Performance **** Recording **** --BBC Music Magazine, Sept'12

Product Description

Steven Osborne, piano - Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra - Juanjo Mena, direction

Customer Reviews

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful, ecstatic 30 July 2012
By schumann_bg TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Audio CD
This new recording of Messiaen's masterpiece has superb clarity and scintillating orchestral colour, as if you had stepped right into the middle of a Chagall painting. The ondes martenot is quite audible in the gigantic sound, as is Steven Osborne's commanding playing of the solo piano part. The notes are very interesting on how the work came into being, and how it took far longer than anticipated, arising out of a commission by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Serge Koussevitzky. It comes across in this recording as a work of great originality that still sounds quite startling, with its amazing day-glo colours and very broad canvas, like a mural that covers a whole block ... Juanjo Mena draws brilliant performances from the Bergen players and it seems to be quite a feat from the Hyperion engineers too, showing that they can embrace a gargantuan orchestra just as well as the smaller scale works they have tended to focus on.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Hyperion Recording Quality produces a Winner. 18 Sep 2012
By Bruce TOP 500 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE
Format:Audio CD
There are now many versions of this piece available and previously my favourite, was the high energy of Chailly : Messiaen: Turangalîla Symphony. But each new orchestral recording from Hyperion this year has been very impressive and this continues the trend.

Of course this requires a large and virtuosic orchestra to carry it off and there is the main problem for any recording. There is so much going on and often at high volume, that it is difficult to capture it all. But I think Hyperion have succeeded in bringing out more colours and timbres than any previous recording.

We have the large percussion section with thunderous bass drum, massive gong sounds and a huge variety of choppy wooden and metal instruments - all with varying sound envelopes and textures. Add in the concertante piano part, large brass section and sub-divided strings and you can see why previous recordings have often resulted in a blurring of the sound.

The controversy around the Ondes Martenot may put some people off this recording. It has never been heard so prominently before and really stands out, in all its other-worldly glamour. Some people think that it should be blended with the strings and just sit in the background - if you are in that camp, then best look for other recordings. Here the full sound is to the fore and timbres come across that just weren't there in previous versions - especially in its bass register. Other recordings have captured the Ondes Martenot as a thin, reedy sound - but here it shakes the floor with bass, like a low organ pipe, and dominates in the loud movements.

Overall then, we have a hugely exciting recording that captures everything and provides us with sounds that just haven't been there before. The soloists are excellent and addd immensely to the performance, which becomes almost like a double concerto. Juanjo Mena finds hidden depths and keep the piece driving forwards. I have only one slight criticism, in that I would have liked the final climax to last longer and be more overwhelming - as it is in the Chailly recording - but really this is a small point in such a fantastic addition to the list of Turangalila Symphonies on record. This is a real contender for best ever recording - especially if you like the Ondes Martenot to be up front. Highly recommended.
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Amazon.com: 5.0 out of 5 stars  1 review
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Messiaen, all stops out! 22 Oct 2012
By Bruce A. Mcdonald - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Messiaen is an acquired taste, but worth acquiring. This recording of a symphony that is incredibly lavish in its orchestration should help a new generation of listeners adjust to his varied style. The recording is excellent, all the way around, and the solists are impressive. One will note quickly the composer's use of tone colors; he can also, on occasion, spin a lovely melody. This is altogether impressive and will repay further listening.
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