Customer Reviews

Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande (Great Recordings of the Century)

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What makes the difference between Karajan and other german conductors up to his generation (and even younger), is their attitude towards non-german repertoire. Furtwängler, Knappertsbusch, Böhm, Klemperer, etc. made their reputations conducting german (or german-like) music. For them, 'german' was sinonimous to 'profound', and had a curious custom to point out the greater 'quality' of a work by slowing its tempo as an indicative of this quality. Listen to Klemperer's 'Matthäus Passion', Böhm's Mozart's Requiem or Beethoven's Ninth, Furtwängler's 'Tristan' or Kna's 'Parsifal'. Of course all the above mentioned works are german.

Karajan was the first to change this attitude. In the sixties he made vigorous and fast-paced recordings of Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, etc. (only Wagner remained an exception, at least in terms of tempo) and approached italian, russian, french and other repertoires with the seriousness that was reserved to german masterpieces up to that time. As an example, he was the first to play Italian Opera from Verdi to Puccini from the orchestra and the score, not from the voices.

It's no chance that he applied slow tempi to this non-german repertoire (even his Cav and Pag!), as to underline that he wanted to do it with the seriousness reserved until that moment to Deutsche Requiems, Fifths and Ninths and so on. This is the case of this 'Pélleas', the first recording of this opera to be conducted by a non-french conductor.

From my point of view, this recording is one of the best ever made by Karajan, and a sign of real genious. He makes sound this music different as heard before (darker, calmer, heavier, ominous...), as if some treasure had remained undiscovered for years and years. This happens also in a few more recordings... 'Walküre', 'Tosca', Mahler's Fifth...

The singers are all excellent. There's not much more to say about the great performances of van Dam, von Stade or Stilwell, so I'd like to say that the choice of Christine Barbaux as Yniold is also fantastic. Her scene with van Dam at the end of Act II and with the sepherd in Act IV are terrific.

I strongly recommend this recording to any lover of this opera. Sorry for my horrible English.

This is an incredibly dark, rich and moving interpretation of the Debussy masterpiece Pelleas et Melisande. Karajan sees the opera through a Wagner filter with the orchestra playing a powerful role in the drama. Von Stade, Stilwell and especially Van Dam are wonderful in their roles as Melisande, Pelleas and Golaud respectively. This might not be a really French way to approach this most French of creations, but this recording is definitely one of the finest Pelleas and Melisande recordings around.

Perhaps the Karajan Pelleas was remastered too early in the EMI Great Recordings series. Unlike most of the other releases in this series, the sound quality is not an improvement upon the earlier CD version. If you have the 1980's release of this opera, there is no need to buy this one. The ART remastering has cleaned up the sound a little, but it represents a step backwards in overall sound quality. The natural echo of music made in a real space is diminished and the recording sounds a few steps removed from real music making.

In the late 1990's EMI issued several ART remasterings with mixed results. Some recordings like the Callas Tosca were a complete disaster with almost all sense of the acoustic space removed (yes, even mono recordings do have a sense of natural echo and depth). However, when the Tosca -- and other recordings such as the Schwarzkopf Rosenkavalier -- were reissued as part of the Great Recordings series, the sound was transformed into a CD with both the voices and the acoustics sounding fuller and more natural.

While by no means a disaster, the sound quality of the Karajan Pelleas seems closer to the failed early ART efforts than to their more recent successes.

It's a pleasure to meet one of the true Great Recordings of the Century. It's also fortunate that the Amazon reviewer so carefuly describes the virtues of this exquisite, in some ways unsurpassed reading of Pelleas et Melisande. Karajan had already displayed his gifts as a Debussy conductor before 1978, but this opera is much harder to bring off than, say, the La Mer or Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. Inspired by Wagner, Debussy created a unique Pelleas world that is as distinctive as the Tristan world, though perhaps its total opposite.

Karajan manages to draw us into this singular world with total involvement. The Berlin Phil. plays with more richness and sonority than any of the French orchestras to be heard in Pelleas--let's be frank, there was never a Parisian orchestra, then or now, that could hold a candle to the Berliners. The principal singers--Stilwell, von Stade, and Van Dam--have enough dramatic weight to stand up to Karajan's all-encompassing orchestral sound, which says a lot. One could argue that Van Dam and von Stade are the greatest modern exponents of Golaud and Melisande--the young von Stade's voice is blessedly free of the fast beat that came to mar it later on. This is not to take away from Stilwell's ardent Pelleas; I particularly like the fact that his baritone inclines toward the tenor range.

In sum, if you are a lover of this enigmatic and elusive opera, Karajan's EMI set, always a good-sounding recording but now even better in its latest remastering, is a must-listen.

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We have a new winner in the Best Pelléas category: Karajan/BPO's studio reading from 1978. This was Karajan's third time out with Debussy's magnum opus, and the Viennese conductor with his mastery of Wagner and Schoenberg perfectly captures Debussy/Maeterlinck's Symbolist masterpiece.

Maeterlinck was and remains an unique and important poetic/literary/theatrical innovator in the categories of Symbolism and proto-Surrealism. One must appreciate just how avant-garde his work was at the Fin de Siècle. Even now his work retains its interest because of his abstraction of the human condition into a disoriented or dreamlike state. At its most basic, the interest of Pelléas et Mélisande is the human dilemma of a woman's love for a man. Maeterlinck's synthesis of connotative and denotative language distilled into elliptical phraseology continues to fascinate. He was, of course, awarded the Nobel Prize in 1911.

Till now thought Abbado/VPO's realization (sadly out of print) couldn't be surpassed Debussy - Pelléas et Mélisande / M. Ewing · Le Roux · van Dam · Courtis · Ludwig · Wiener Phil. · Abbado . And since Karajan's leave-taking, Abbado virtually ties with Boulez as Earth's greatest conductor--(even Boulez probably couldn't surpass Abbado's Wozzeck Alban Berg: Wozzeck (Opera in 3 Acts) - Franz Grundheber / Hildegard Behrens / Wiener Philharmoniker / Claudio Abbado ).

As for other critique, Ted Libby (on item site page) says it all.

In addition, Debussy enthusiasts will want to seek out his second greatest work Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien (complete version) Claude Debussy: Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien .
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[Having found that I've not reviewed as yet a truly great recording of one of my two favourite operas (Shostakóvich's "Lady Macbeth Mcjénskovo Ujézda" being the other) even though having commented upon it in my writing-up of the Ansermet Decca/London recording, I'd better make amends at once!!!]

A few other reviewers have said better than what I otherwise might regarding the voices' properties, so let me here be short. Although I find Frederica von Stade somewhat too coquettish for Mélisande (somehow, it seems as if an American girl's forthrightness and assertiveness intrudes here too much for this character's otherworldly, timid, frighened good!) and José van Dam - although excellent indeed - still just a shadow less menacing and authoritative than George London (for Ansermet), the overall performance of everybody gels to overall perfection. [With such a performance in fact, it's too easy then to end up a nit-picker - e.g., the tubist (tuba-player) has a few false entries near the beginning of Act II Scene 3.] I particularly here like the way the other people play Geneviève, Yniold, Pelléas (though still a real tenor would be best!) and especially Arkël (Ruggero Raimondi here is a true stand-out!!!).

The true star of this recording (barring a few nits like the one mentioned above) is the Berlin Philharmonic: both in its overall ensemble AND in terms of its individual sections and soloists (notably the woodwinds - I could wish for the brass to be somewhat still more assertive in a few places although overall the whole orchestra opens up more than some people might feel comfortable with!), one sees how truly without peer it happens to be - and in French music to boot!!!! [When can we hope to see a French ensemble prove itself worthy of comparison even on their home terrain (perhaps the Paris Bastille - the way they played Shostakóvich's "Lady Macbeth" gives one a glimmer thereof...)?]

As to those who feel that Debussy was out to be anti-Wagner (thus requiring a non-Wagnerian viewpoint), I'll simply say that it was a question of cattiness (Debussy was simply not the best of men by a longshot!) and jealousy. [French composers were so intimidated by Wagner and "Wagnerism" accusations that they were desperately out to assert themselves at any cost in any way possible - not realising that his harmonic language (among other points) was there to stay and be most influential (e.g., César Franck's music - particularly that for organ - is heavily influenced that way even if it otherwise remains sparser in sound than what the Teutons produced).] Karajan is entirely right to see "Pelléas" NOT as an antithesis or antidote to Wagner but as the (to-date) culmination of what Wagner was aiming for (subject of course to the ideal of a French instead of a German overall æsthetic - and nobody was more Gallic than Debussy; the combination of Musórgskian vocal-lines + Wagner's integrated-opera construction doesn't take away from the music's Gallic character one bit {it's every bit as quintessentially French as Ravel's "Daphnis et Chloé"}!).

[A case in point is the way Debussy's leitmotifs are much more dynamic in usage and flexibility (even at times to the point of unrecognizability!) compared to those of Wagner (or even Richard Strauss), which remain static in terms of instrumental colour, rhythm, and often key! It's in this way that Debussy goes beyond Wagner while yet bringing the German's overall aims to perfection!]

I don't hesitate in recommending this set most highly in all regards (superb sound in recording terms too!) - though I'll also recommend Ansermet's Decca/London stereo recording (one of the cheapest around but most worth it nonetheless!!!) to give an alternative viewpoint of the work. [Those who can tolerate mono sound may well wish to investigate Ingelbrecht, Fournet, etc....]

Although the principal roles here are sung here with both beauty and refinement of sound and both intensity and delicacy of feeling (although no other Pelleas quite matches the legendary Jacques Jansen in style, expressivity and depth of characterization), their efforts are compromised by Karajan's insistence on an edgeless, string dominated sound (the woodwinds and brass are rendered devoid of any natural bite, so as, I think, to maximally blend in with the strings, as opposed to providing a meaningful contrast in timbre). This serves to make the music sound laid back to the point of blandness instead of bringing out its subtle but effective blend of dramatic tension with evocative mystery. If you want to hear the true expressive range of this great work, try to listen to Inghelbrecht's 1962 stereo broadcast on Disques Montaigne (if it is still available), which is in very good sound, and with the great Jansen himself as Pelleas (the major drawback to that recording is that the Golaud is too lightweight in sound and restrained in expression to effectively convey the rage and menace of the character, as Van Dam in the Karajan recording does so well).

in fact, debussy was trying to create an anti-wagner opera when he wrote pelleas, music and words that only suggest what is really happening, but never explicitly spells it out, as wagner does with his music, or other composers do with their words and sounds. karajan ignores this and tries to make pelleas et melisande into tristan und isolde. it doesn't work. try the recording with dutoit and the montreal orchestra (and an all-french cast) to see what this opera is supposed to sound like.

Read A Music Fan's review above.
I'm very syrprised EMI would even consider allowing Kraajan to record ANY Debussy, even more so the very difficult score of Pelleas.
Of course all the glowing reviewers have not heard Desormiere's 1942 nor Ingelbrecht's masterpiece recordings.
Of course not.
Yet they rate Karajan a hit.
One star for attempt.