It was unlike Olivier Messiaen, the composer, ever to do things in small measure, especially late in his career.  He had a vision of intense realization when he recognized the splendor of the gospel account of the transfiguration. He struggled to represent with music what was for him an emotional understanding…and he struggled to bring the audience to the mountain top with him.

"It was in clear weather, whilst gazing at Mont Blanc and the Jungfrau, that I grasped the difference between the modest splendor of snow and the mighty splendor of the sun - that is also where I could imagine the extent of the awesomeness of the place of the Transfiguration," wrote Messiaen.

Composed between 1965 and 1969, La Transfiguration is an intense meditation on the Transfiguration of Christ. Aspects of that divine synthesis are reflected by a dense mosaic of interwoven Latin texts, drawing on sources as diverse as the Gospels, Genesis, the Epistles of St Paul and the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas.

Yet even more kaleidoscopic are the large, complex forces for which Messiaen calls, comprising six separate groups of musicians - 18 woodwind, 17 brass, 68 strings, six percussionists, a 100-strong choir, plus a further seven instrumental soloists

There's nothing false about La Transfiguration - ecstasy, joy, awe and terror are all there: what you hear is what you get.

Messiaen: La Transfiguration de Notre-Seigneur Jesus-Christ Orchestre Philharmonique et Choeurde Radio France; Myung-Whun Chung, cond. (DeutscheGrammophon 471 569-2; 2 CDs)