Composer: Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen
Performer: Marc-André Hamelin, Nathalie Forget
Orchestra: Toronto Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Gustavo Gimeno
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Catalogue: HMM905336
Release: 2024
Size: 2.32 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Turangalîla Symphony
01. I. Introduction. Modéré, un peu vif
02. II. Chant d’amour. 1 Modéré, lourd
03. III. Turangalîla 1. Presque lent, rêveur
04. IV. Chant d’amour 2. Bien modéré
05. V. Joie du sang des étoiles. Vif, passionné, avec joie
06. VI. Jardin du sommeil d’amour. Très modéré, très tendre
07. VII. Turangalîla 2. Un peu vif, bien modéré
08. VIII. Développement de l’amour. Bien modéré
09. IX. Turangalîla 3. Bien modéré
10. X. Final. Modéré, presque vif, avec une grande joie
In their first release on harmonia mundi, Gustavo Gimeno and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra offer us a dazzling reading of the Turangalîla- Symphonie. Equally attentive to architecture and to detail, they glorify the rich and refined orchestration of the French composer’s vast hymn to love, always on the lookout for unprecedented sonic alchemies. A unique musical and sensory experience.
This 2024 release featuring Messiaen’s vast Turangalîla Symphonie is a landmark event in several ways. It marks conductor Gustavo Gimeno’s premiere recording with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the orchestra’s first recording for the Harmonia Mundi label. The album, recorded live over two performances at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto, captures the first Toronto Symphony performance of the work since its Seiji Ozawa days; ondes Martenot player Nathalie Forget was flown in from France, her instrument broken down and shipped in ten separate boxes, and the all-important piano part is played by Marc-André Hamelin, arguably Canada’s top keyboard star of the day. For all the star power, the main attraction is simply the performance itself, catching the vast scope of this work with its loose program based on the tale of Tristan and Isolde. Gimeno gets top-notch playing from his percussion section in rhythmically difficult music. Hamelin’s piano passages are crackling, and the hugely diverse score, whose languages range from serialism to Indian and Indonesian classical music to jazz-inflected passages, is handled by Gimeno and his players with absolute confidence and a sense of the work’s overarching structure. An impressive achievement, with fine sonics from Harmonia Mundi engineers working in a new venue. This release made classical best-seller charts in early 2024.