The late Hans Vonk apparently approved eight discs for release by the St. Louis Symphony on its own label, as a memorial to his art and the music he felt especially deeply. Certainly this live recording of Messiaen’s monumental Turangalila-symphonie shows evidence of that. It’s a mostly magnificent performance, amazingly accurate given its live provenance (much more so than the Berlin/Nagano), and extremely well recorded. The piano, glockenspiel, vibraphone, and ondes martenot are all perfectly integrated into the orchestral texture, and Garrick Ohlsson’s handling of the difficult solo part is uncommonly sensitive and poetic (try Turangalila II, or his big cadenza in the first movement).
Vonk pays remarkable attention to line and rhythmic clarity, finding real melodies in the most complex textures in the big “love” movements (Nos. 4 and 8) but never sounding underplayed or inhibited. Indeed, this Joy of the Blood of the Stars (Movement 5) is one of the most ecstatic on disc. Granted, the first movement’s central “machine” episode sounds a bit stiff, and in the finale Vonk’s grip loosens just a bit (and I do wish he had held onto the last chord); but taken as a whole this is a remarkable achievement and a tribute to both conductor and orchestra. The audience is very quiet, obviously captivated by what they were hearing back in 1999, and I have no doubt that you will be too. Among the many fine versions of Turangalila on disc, this one certainly stands tall.
