La Transfiguration is an important turning point in Messiaen’s work‚ at once a sort of summation of what he had achieved so far and (in retrospect) a preparation for the richness of his late music‚ culminating in his opera Saint Francois d’Assise. There are‚ as ever‚ bird songs and glinting piano flourishes‚ Messiaen’s characteristic‚ rich‚ ‘coloured’ harmonies and complex rhythms. But not for some while in his music had there been such resplendent tonal chorales and sonorous unisons. Compared to most of his major works‚ however‚ this one has been seldom recorded. The reason no doubt is the enormous forces it demands: you could perhaps get by with fewer than the 68 strings that he stipulates‚ but you still need quadruple woodwind‚ six horns‚ six percussion players and seven instrumental soloists. And‚ most crucially‚ a large chorus (Messiaen suggested 100 singers) of whom vaultingly angular lines are sometimes required and who at one point are divided into 20 parts. Until now there have been only three recordings. Those by Antál Dorati (Decca) and Reinbert de Leeuw (Montaigne) are unavailable‚ but Karl Anton Rickenbacher’s is admirable in most respects and at first sight appears better value since it includes the substantial extra of Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum. It is‚ however‚ a much slacker reading than that of the main work‚ so Rickenbacher and Chung may be compared on equal terms. They are pretty close. The frequent passages of Gregorian­derived chant are more fluidly cantabile in Chung’s hands‚ but Rickenbacher’s singers are sometimes more expressive. The exquisite interlude in the fifth movement which Messiaen described as a ‘beautiful spring night’ is very lovely in both readings; marginally more so in Rickenbacher’s. Both have fine soloists‚ Yvonne Loriod at the piano adding authority to Rickenbacher’s account‚ though Chung’s Roger Muraro is no less vivid. In the solo cello music (written for and first played by Mstislav Rostropovich) Chung’s Eric Levionnois is preferable to Rickenbacher’s slightly stretched Michael Sanderling. Where Chung is superior is in his greater readiness to allow events time in which to register‚ and the solemn chorales which end each half of the work really do need to be as slow as he takes them; each chord needs to be savoured‚ and Rickenbacher doesn’t quite do this. Chung also has an edge in sheer splendour of orchestral sound‚ aided by a recording which balances the large orchestra‚ the concertante group and the chorus very well indeed. The Koch­Schwann is in closer focus‚ the solo group very prominent‚ and although this aids clarity in the very dense counterpoint of‚ for example‚ the sixth movement‚ it allows less light and shade elsewhere. We should be grateful‚ though‚ for having two recordings of what is‚ in all but duration (Des Canyons aux Étoiles‚ requiring far fewer performers‚ is 10 minutes longer)‚ Messiaen’s grandest and richest work for the concert hall.