Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande Suite, etc.

Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande Suite, etc.

by Claudio AbbadoClaudio Abbado

Overview

One of Claudio Abbado's first recordings included a suave, marvelously transparent account of Debussy's Nocturnes with the Boston Symphony. In this new version with the Berlin Philharmonic, the opening "Nuages" (Clouds) cast darker shadows, and the revelry in "Fêtes" seems unusually determined, which gives it almost an ominous tone. Capped with a richly sensuous performance of "Sirènes," featuring full-throated entreaties from the women of the Rundfunkchor Berlin, this is an imaginative and persuasive reinterpretation a classic of musical Impressionism. Abbado's view of the Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune will not be so controversial, but it offers a successful balance of languor and passion. Emmanuel Pahud plays the opening solo exquisitely. A concert suite from Debussy's opera Pelléas et Mélisande, however, is clearly the disc's raison d'être. Abbado uses Erich Leinsdorf's arrangement of excerpts, adding a few of his own to create a four-movement symphonic poem. It's a dark view of the score -- the love scenes are omitted, for example -- yet it holds together very well, and the performance (recorded live in Berlin) is powerfully and grippingly atmospheric. Excellent recording, too. Recommended.

Product Details

Release Date: 02/11/2003
Label: Dg Imports
UPC: 0028947133223
catalogNumber: 471332

Tracks

  1. Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun), for orchestra, L. 86
  2. Nocturnes, for female chorus & orchestra, L. 91
  3. Pelléas et Mélisande, opera in 5 acts, L. 88: Concerto Suite: Act 1, Une forêt
  4. Pelléas et Mélisande, opera in 5 acts, L. 88: Concerto Suite: Act 2, Scene 1. Une fontaine dans
  5. Pelléas et Mélisande, opera in 5 acts, L. 88: Concerto Suite: Act 3, Scene 2. Les souterrains du
  6. Pelléas et Mélisande, opera in 5 acts, L. 88: Concerto Suite: Act 5. Une chambre dans le château

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