Editorial Reviews

This gargantuan 14-disc EMI set is admirable for its inclusiveness, but the quality of the individual performances is hit and miss. To be sure, there are some performances here that are definitive for all intents and purposes, the composer's own luminous performances of "La Nativité du Seigneur," "Les Corps glorieux," and especially "L'Ascension" among them. Other superlative performances here include Martha Argerich and Alexandre Rabinovitch's surging "Visions de l'Amen," and John Ogdon's searing "Cantéyodijava." But too many of the performances here are just so-so: Serge Baudo and the Orchestre de Paris' dreary "Les Offrandes oublièes" and terminally mundane "Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum," Michel Béroff's brilliant but cold "Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus," and André Previn and the London Symphony's merely workman-like "Turangalila-Symphonie." Given the depths of EMI's catalog, some of the remaining performances will naturally be of great interest to the Messiaen enthusiast, particularly those by his wife Yvonne Loriod, including a radiant reading of the "Quatuor pour la fin du temps." Recorded over four decades in monaural, stereo, and digital, the sonic quality here is consistently among the best for its time and technique. James Leonard, All Music Guide

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