Olivier Messiaen - Turangalîla Symphonie / Quatuor Pour La Fin Du Temps (1987)

This classic double-disc release from the 80s came up in the comments last time I posted Messiaen, so about time I got around to posting it.  The pairing of Turangalîla with Quartet For The End Of Time brings together two of Messiaen's most celebrated masterpieces, and this set is also essential because it sounds so great, with world-class musicians all round.

Simon Rattle's take on Turangalîla is one of typically lush attention to detail, and makes for interesting side-by-side comparison with my personal favourite rendering under Antoni Wit (see links below), where everything is a bit more in-your-face.  The ondes Martenot does blend better with the orchestra in the Rattle version, I reckon - it's played here by Tristan Murail.

After such mind-meltingly colourful music comes the stark contrast of Quatour Pour La Fin Du Temps.  Famously written and premiered in a prisoner of war camp, the four players effortlessly evoke Messiaen's sombre but spiritually hopeful apocalypse.  The cello (Siegfried Palm) and piano (Aloys Kontarsky) duet sounds particularly affecting.  More Messiaen/Rattle next week.

Disc 1 link
Disc 2 link
pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:
Quatre Études De Rythme
Des Canyons Aux Étoiles
Turangalîla Symphony / L'ascension (Naxos recording cond. by Wit)
Et Exspecto Ressurrectionem (Philips recording cond. by Haitink)
Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum (Erato recording cond. by Boulez), etc

Krzysztof Penderecki - Emanationen, Partita, Cello Concerto, Symphony (1995 compilation, rec. 1972/3)

Following on from last Monday's post, a further tribute to Krzysztof Pendercki after his recent death.  This compilation from the 90s, like the second of the 'previously posted' links below, pulled together the composer-conducted recordings made for EMI in the early 70s.  On this one are four of Pendercki's slightly less famous but no less engrossing and distinctive works for orchestra.

First up is Emanationen, one of Pendercki's early works composed in 1958.  Two orchestras tuned a minor second apart generate a queasy churn that hints at the extremities to come in the 1960s.  The next two works are concertante, firstly Partita for harpsichord and chamber orchestra.  This was the 1972 premiere recording with harpsichordist Felicja Blumental (it was written the previous year); the instrument's spidery rattling sits well with parts for electric guitar and bass guitar.

Cello Concerto No. 1 was originally written in 1967 as a rare feature for the five-string violino grande, and was transcribed into a cello concerto five years later.  The legendary Siegfried Palm ably takes the lead part to its dark, violent depths and screeching heights - you can imagine a young Iancu Dumitrescu taking notes.  Closing the collection is Penderecki's first Symphony, commissioned in 1972 by, of all things, an English gas-engine manufacturing company (they were involved in a series of Annual Industrial Concerts).  It aptly starts out sounding like some unearthly mechanical device sputtering into life, before going deep into atmospheric soundworlds that only Penderecki could conjure up.

link
pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:
St Luke Passion, Threnody etc (Polskie Nagrania Muza recordings)
Threnody, etc (EMI recordings)
Symphony No. 2
Utrenja