Neither - I was only referring to Chung's recent recording of the Quartet for the End of Time, which is rife with performance problems. His Turangalila is pretty amazing and composer-approved, and I got to hear him conduct it here in New York just a few weeks ago in an overwhelming performance. Rattle, Salonen, Chailly and Wit provide stiff competition, but Chung's Turangalila also has the added benefit of being one of the few available on a single disc. His recording of Transfiguration, a piece not nearly as approachable as Turangalila, is equally powerful - I just gave it an enthusiastic recommendation in Time Out New York the week Chung was in town (I'd point you to it on the website, but it's not archived just yet). In fact, Chung's orchestral Messiaen is all first-rate, which is why it's such a mystery that his quartet performance is so lax. Steve Smith ssmith36@sprynet.com -----Original Message----- From: Patrice L. Roussel [mailto:proussel@ichips.intel.com] Sent: Monday, December 09, 2002 3:36 PM On Mon, 9 Dec 2002 15:14:31 -0500 "Steve Smith" wrote:
I'm probably nostalgic. Surprisingly, given his fine recordings of Messiaen's orchestral music, the recent Myung-Whun Chung recording on Deutsche Grammophon is to be avoided at any price.
You mean TRANSFIGURATION DE NOTRE SEIGNEUR JESUS CHRIST? Or simply his version of THE TURANGALILA SYMPHONY?