Alban BERG (1885-1935)
Three Pieces for Orchestra [1929] [20:54]
Arnold SCHÖNBERG (1874-1951)
Pelléas and Mélisande [1902-3] [40:21]
Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra/Jac van Steen
rec. 5-7 October 2009 (Berg), 21-23 January 2013 (Schönberg), Konzerthaus,
Dortmund, Germany.
MUSIKPRODUKTION DABRINGHAUS UND GRIMM 9011807-6 
[61:18]
The partnership of van Steen and the Dortmund orchestra
is probably best known on disc for the central Romantic repertoire -
Dvořák, Tchaikovsky and so on. In this recording of Second
Vienna School composers, they provide strong credentials for their prowess
in 20th century music.
This is a very interesting disc. The Berg is one of his best-known works,
while the Schönberg used to be a bit of a rarity. Looking in the
catalogue now, though, I see a fair number of comparatively recent recordings.
Completed in 1903, it is a huge piece, lying amongst the composer’s
major works between Gurre-lieder and the First Chamber Symphony.
It shares the enormous dimensions of the former and some of the increasingly
expressionistic musical language of the latter. For the listener, it
does take some considerable perseverance and concentration. Seeing it
as a programme symphony in various contrasted sections, as suggested
by Berg, does help in finding one’s way through the maze of themes
and development.
The Berg pieces are relatively concise, though no less complex, and
much higher up the ‘dissonance’ scale than Schönberg’s
relatively early piece. It is in the teeming complexity of Berg’s
masterpiece that I find this recorded performance so outstandingly good.
Perhaps because of the ‘Sound Ideal’, proclaimed by MDG
in the booklet, every tiny detail in this extraordinary score comes
through with complete clarity. One example - after the cataclysmic climax
towards the end of the Marsch: the snarling muted horns are spine-chilling
in their ignoble mutterings. This is the furthest remove from ‘easy-listening’,
but I find it completely convincing - riveting.
This type of recorded sound is, to me, not so kind or so appropriate
for Pelléas. This music, still late-Romantic in character,
seems to call for a deeper perspective, allowing orchestral sounds to
blend more subtly. The playing is terrific, powerfully characterised,
and technically assured; but the climaxes are uncomfortably glaring.
Some listeners will like this, for the elements in the drama such as
Golaud’s jealousy and hatred, or the murder of Pelléas,
call for a sound of unremitting violence. I just find it a little too
‘in your face’!
That personal reservation aside, this is a distinguished and valuable
issue. Van Steen has the measure of this demanding music, and draws
magnificent playing from his orchestra.
Gwyn Parry-Jones
