I often wonder whether the presence of composers at recordings of their works is a good idea, especially when the composer is as eminent and revered as Messiaen was in 1987, when this recording was made.
This is far from being the only recording of the quartet which Messiaen supervised - there's a version on DG and, most recently, the EMI issue with Yvonne Loriod as pianist. Neither of those is wholly satisfactory, and this new one seems especially affected by a besetting caution, and the kind of persistently equivocal attitude to the markings in the score which might be the result of the composer's well-meaning but questionable deprecation of his own original intentions. A clear example of the problems this creates is in the fifth movement, where the cello's attempt at the required 'majesty' involves a dynamic level nearer to f than the marked p. By contrast, the piano part, also marked p, is excessively reticent, and although the performers do adopt an appropriately slow tempo, it is at the cost of uneven cello tone and generally unsteady articulation.
The best feature of this performance is the clarinet playing of Michel Arrignon, whose performance of the solo movement, ''Abime des oiseaux'', is excellent: refined and spontaneous in equal measure. Sadly, Arrignon is unable to inspire his colleagues to the necessary 'granitic' vigour in the ''Danse de la fureur, pour les sept trompettes'' and the four players blend rather uneasily, both here and in the subsequent seventh movement.
The recording as such is adequate but, as will be obvious by now, I can't regard this performance as mounting much of a challenge to the recent Collins Classics recording, or to the RCA and Teldec alternatives.'