Messiaen - Turangalîla (YouTube)

In a blind test earlier this year, France Musique's panel of record critics decided that Marek Janowski's 1992 recording of Messiaen's Turangalila, with Roger Murano, Valérie Hartmann-Claverie and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, was the best overall. They also liked Chung's, which I already had, but dismissed it on account of what they agreed unanimously was inadequate sound quality. With my tin ears, I hadn't noticed.

Janowski's recording isn't easy to get hold of: I first ordered it in February, but it never arrived and in the end my money was refunded - without any notice: I only found out by chance when looking at my account. (That reminds me of a great cartoon from Modern Toss, which I'll post at the end, below.)

I ordered the CDs again, from a different source, and at last, this week, they showed up, and I now have the set on my iPad so I can listen in the cemetery next door on sunny days like today. (Messiaen is not buried in Père Lachaise, or anywhere else in Paris, but in a little place south of Grenoble called Saint-Théoffrey, where he had a summer cottage.)

Turangalila is coupled, on this RCA set, with the world premiere recording of Un Sourire, also by Messiaen, and Lutosławski's Concerto for Orchestra.

I see the whole of this Turangalila is available on YT:

Unexpectedly, the whole score is available online in PDF format.

By the way, the last time I heard this work live the experience was ruined by my being seated too close to the stage...

As promised, the cartoon from Modern Toss: