This recording dates from 1994, and if only it had been issued earlier it would have given the other two readings of Eclairs an energetic run for their money. Several of the work’s bolder or more vociferous birds are Australian, after all, notably the Superb Lyrebird which displayed its magnificent tail-feathers to Messiaen not far from Canberra, and profoundly moved him with the “prodigious virtuosity” of its song. Movingly for us, in this last major work, premiered after his death, Messiaen was still capable of finding new sonorities, and more often than not they are full-voiced ones. The Sydney Symphony Orchestra respond to this sound-world with attack of remarkable vigour (the culminating appearance of the kookaburra in the eighth movement is a magnificent racket) and – Messiaen would no doubt have been pleased at this – the music seems to inhabit a warmer climate and a brighter light as a result. Which does not diminish the shrewdness with which Porcelijn distinguishes different lights: he realizes that the string colours of the fifth movement (“Dwelling in love”) should be rich and saturated but not voluptuous, quite different from the bright luminousness of the superficially similar concluding string chorale, a contemplation of Christ as all-sufficient light.
Porcelijn is also very good at ensuring that in multi-layered textures pretty well everything is audible, and he knows all about the importance of patient silence in Messiaen’s music. The spacious but not in the least muddy acoustic is a great help, too: the Lyrebird’s jubilance ought to be audible, surely, for miles. And how satisfying to have a really fff gong, with no suspicion that the player has been asked to tone it down a little for the microphones. I liked this performance and this recording a great deal, in short, and cannot imagine anyone being disappointed by either.'