Messiaen: Turangalîla-Symphonie

When Serge Koussevitsky commissioned Messiaen to write an orchestral work for the Boston Symphony in 1946, he told the composer, “Choose as many instruments as you desire, write a work as long as you wish and in the style you want.” Messiaen took him at his word, creating a ten-movement behemoth for an overflow ensemble with an immense percussion section, plus two soloists, calling it Turangalîla-Symphonie. The name is, roughly, Sanskrit for “hymn to joy,” and appropriately, the music exudes an exotic sense of ecstasy. Messiaen’s voice has a unique harmonic signature, but it is very approachable. In this piece his solo parts are for piano and ondes Martenot, a keyboard instrument that is a precursor to the modern synthesizer, producing swooping tones that were widely used in vintage sci-fi film scores. This new recording is a tour-de-force in every way; Andris Nelsons and the BSO celebrate the 75th anniversary of the premiere of the music with tremendous intensity and kaleidoscopic tone, and are brilliantly abetted by pianist Yuja Wang and ondist Cécile Lartigau. Not least, the recording is superb. Clearly the venerable DG sound engineers, who have had a few rough patches in the digital era, totally have their mojo back.