Aaron wrote:

>The Varese and Webern "complete" editions I'm familiar with (although it is
>a pity that Boulez didn't do "Im Sommerwind")--who has a complete Messiaen
>set available?

Thanks for the possibility to write on my favourite subject...

There used to be one on Erato which came out around the 80th birthday of
the composer.  Don't know if it is still available, but if it is, do not
buy it.  It isn't complete anyway, because it excludes some of the great
things he wrote after that (i.e.  the "concert a quatre", the "eclairs sur
l'au-dela").  Moreover, there are BY FAR better performances available in
separate issues on quite a lot of what's in the box.  Thirdly, (something
of a perverse argument coming from me) it used to be full priced, so no
gain in that as well.

Being something of a Messiaen fanatic, this box used to catch my eyes of
course when it was around, but I than decided I'd better be without it
and concentrate on quality instead of acute quantity.

The only tempter from a historical point of view would be the works for
organ (and some piano music as well) in some of which Messiaen himself
appears.  On the other hand, Messiaen was the first to admit the great
virtues of recordings of his organ works by people like Bate, Rossler,
and so on.

For what it's worth, here is my list of "basic recommended Messiaen
recordings" (obviously not striving to include everything, but only what
only I consider to be most worthy):

*Turangalila symphony:
Many good ones available. To list only three: Myung Whun Chung on DG,
Chailly on Decca and Salonen on Sony

*Des Canyons aux etoiles:
Salonen on Sony or De Leeuw (on Chandos I believe)

*Eclairs sur l'au dela:
Myung Whun Chung on DG. A very moving work of his old age.

*Also some very fine collections of shorter works (like Oiseaux exotiques,
L'ascension, Sept Hakai, Et expecto...) are available (notably Boulez on
DG, again de Leeuw on Chandos)

*Vingt regards sur l'enfant Jesus
Great accounts by Haakan Austbo on Naxos and Aimard on Erato.

*Visions de l"Amen
Spectacular recording by Martha Argerich and Nicolas Economou

*Quartet pour la fin du Temps
My favourite remains the Rondom kwartet on Philips.  Perhaps also the new
DG recording, but haven't given it much listen to yet...

*Organ Works
Numerous good recordings. Jennifer Bate, Almuth Rossler, Willem Tanke,
Messiaen himself

*La Transfiguration
Great recording under Dorati on Decca; no clue if it is still out there.

And now for the best:

*St. Francois d'Assise in the historical in every way recording by
Nagano on DG (out in 1998 so probably well available).  His opus magnus
in a splendid recording with a magnificent Jose van Dam and Dawn Upshaw.
Listening to that, I have always felt to have the pure essence of Messiaen
brought together before me; it's just all there.

regards, Jos