Anatol Ugorski’s 1993 recording of Messiaen’s magnum piano opus occasionally turned up in U.S. stores as a special import, and it wasn’t cheap. It’s now reissued as a DG Trio. Whatever you do, don’t let this bargain slip away. Ugorski revels in each movement’s daunting difficulties and is not afraid to make big, loud, joyous virtuoso noise. If you follow the scores, you’ll see that Ugorski sometimes takes liberties with the rhythms or does not execute the composer’s carefully marked tempo transitions so faithfully as, say Peter Hill (Unicorn) or Hakan Austbo (Naxos). And Austbo’s softer-tinted filigree is more sensually voiced than Ugorski’s relatively flamboyant fingerwork. Yet longer movements like Le Traquet stapazin, La Rousserolle effarvante, Le Mere de roche, and La Fauvette des jardins (a later birdsong-inspired work that spiritually belongs alongside its earlier brethren) surely benefit from Ugorski’s almost-Lisztian rhetoric and theatrical dynamic range. Those who sometimes find Messiaen’s idiom formula-driven and static may well alter their opinion after experiencing Ugorski’s robust yet incisive pianism and charismatic, communicative interpretations. A gramophone classic, not to be missed.
