Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Riccardo Chailly - Olivier Messiaen: Turangalîla-Symphonie (2012)

Riccardo Chaillys sensational recording will be an obvious first choice. Deccas sound is brilliant, detailed and just a little airless, emphasizing the Concertgebouws astonishing unanimity of attack. (Both engineers and musicians are perhaps less preoccupied with achieving a real pianissimo.) The soloists are closely balanced not unacceptably so but this does again serve to exaggerate the impersonal, mechanistic aspects of Messiaens writing. Let's be clear: I have never heard this unprecedented score unleashed with greater panache than it is here. Chaillys interpretation is thrilling.