Olivier Messiaen - Complete Edition (32 CDs Box Set) (2008)

. . . DG has comfortably outdone its rivals with a huge set on 32 discs that can justly be considered comprehensive . . . The very substantial booklet includes full texts and translations . . . The complete piano works are played with commanding authority and brilliant insight by Muraro (including the finest recording of the "Vingt Regards" that I have ever heard). He's a pianist who never neglects the rapture and poetry of this music either, wonderfully expressive (as well as virtuosic) in some of the bird pieces. The organ works are performed with comparable brilliance by Latry, at the organ of Notre-Dame de Paris . . . Nagano's authoritative recording of "Saint Francois d'Assise" crowns this remarkable box . . . The orchestral works are shared between Chung and Boulez -- performances that are all familiar, and mostly outstanding . . . this is a thrilling, brilliantly executed and excitingly conducted performance and it is probably my favourite among several excellent recordings of the work. The Chung "Éclairs sur l'Au-Delà" is the most detailed, and the most beautiful, that I've heard on disc. His recordings of early orchestral works such as "Les Offrandes oubliées", "Le Tombeau resplendissant" and "L'Ascension" are also very fine. So, too, is the Boulez "Chronochromie" . . . this should prove to be a magnificent set, and it is offered at a very reasonable price.
Record Review / Nigel Simeone, International Record Review (London) / 01. November 2008