You’ve heard of the Maestro Mystique? Whatever it is, Simone Young in her mid-60s doesn’t have it. Once an assistant to James Conlon and Daniel Barenboim, she takes the podium with the earnest confidence of a graduate student who is never unprepared. Airs and graces? Forget it. She knows what she’s doing. Her ironclad professionalism serves her well in challenging repertory, and repertory doesn’t get a whole lot more challenging than Olivier Messiaen’s Turangalîla-symphonie. The title, coined by the composer from big words in Sanskrit, is said to mean “love song, hymn to joy, time, movement, rhythm, life and death.” The LAPhil bills it as a “maximalist thrill ride,” and has brought in the ubiquitous Zack Winokur (choreographer, director, impresario, all-round genius) to make it more so, who knows how. The star pianist Yves Thibaudet and Cynthia Miller on the electronic ondes Martenot (a sort of goofy living fossil, introduced an eternal century ago) take the two showy solo parts. —Matthew Gurewitsch