Haters of Schoenberg’s atonal excesses, myself included, need
have no fears about Pelleas und Melisande, a work of ripe
late Romanticism, though, surprisingly, its 1905 premiere in Vienna
apparently caused riots. As in the case of Mozart, Prague showed
greater appreciation of the music. Perhaps it was Schoenberg’s
evocation of the mystery of Maurice Maeterlinck’s plot which perplexed
the Viennese audience but, really, if you like Richard Strauss’s
music – the Alpine Symphony, for example, though Schoenberg
is less specifically descriptive – you’ll like Pelleas;
his use of the whole-tone scale here is no more adventurous than
its employment by Debussy from whom, indeed, he may have ‘borrowed’
it.
Pelleas is not exactly a tidily organised score – sprawling
is not too strong a word for it – but I react to it much more
positively than to that much-praised work of the same period,
Gurrelieder - I’m afraid some friends and I long ago
renamed them the Dreary Lieder. Surprisingly, since
Robert Craft is such an acknowledged expert on Stravinsky and
Schoenberg – the Naxos booklet even contains an ad for his book
about them and other musical figures, Down a Path of Wonder
– I was less than bowled over.
Ideally, the music needs a firmer hand and/or a
more focused orchestra than are on offer here; to some extent,
I found myself wondering why I had liked the music. The colourfulness
is there, but the direction is lacking and I ended up placing
the work almost in the same category as the Gurrelieder.
I had to play Strauss’s Alpine Symphony – Neeme Järvi
and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra on Chandos – just
to make sure that I hadn’t somehow lost sympathy with the late-Romantic
idiom; I hadn’t. I hope to review that Järvi Strauss recording
in the November, 2008, Download Roundup.
In view of the success of several of these ex-Koch
recordings by Robert Craft – I’m thinking especially of his
versions of Stravinsky’s Greek-themed ballets, Apollo,
Agon and Orpheus (8.557502) – his comparative
failure here is most surprising. Perhaps he just didn’t gel
with the Philharmonia as well as he does with the LSO and St
Luke’s Orchestra on that other recording.
There already exists a fine mid-price version of
Pelleas from the Berlin Philharmonic under Karajan, rather
more logically coupled with another major work from Schoenberg’s
early period, Verklärte Nacht (4577212). Tony Haywood
partly recommended a budget-price Sony recording of the same
coupling (SBK63035, no longer available – see review)
– he liked Boulez’s Verklärte Nacht but thought the playing
in Barenboim’s account of Pelleas too scrappy by comparison
with Karajan or Sinopoli - also DG, no longer available.
Dave Billinge recommended Edo de Waart’s Pelleas
with the Sydney SO (ABC Classics 4545142, with Five Orchestral
Pieces, etc. – see review)
and Colin Clarke liked the coupling of Pelleas and the
Piano Concerto on CHAN10285X – see review
– though he, too, ultimately preferred Karajan or the Ultima
coupling of Boulez’s Pelleas and several other major
Schoenberg works.
That Ultima version has been replaced by an equally inexpensive
reissue on the Apex label (2564699845). There is also another very
low-price 2-CD set on EMI Gemini, coupling Verklärte Nacht
and Pelleas with several other works (3714922 – ECO/Barenboim
and CBSO/Rattle). I don’t think we have reviewed this in its present
form, but TH referred to Barenboim’s contribution positively in
his review of the Sony/Barenboim (see above).
The Naxos coupling, Erwartung, is not exactly
the most logical partner for Pelleas. (Nor, incidentally,
was the original coupling, Pierrot Lunaire.) It’s a
far tougher proposition than Pelleas or Verklärte
Nacht, though a mere seven years separate it from the earlier
work. The interim had seen Schoenberg’s First String Quartet
and First Chamber Symphony in which, to quote Oklahoma,
he’d gone about as far as he could go in terms of conventional
musical language. The Five Orchestral Pieces of 1909
and Erwartung - also 1909, though not performed until
1924 - were his first atonal works.
I have to admit that I never was as receptive to
Schoenberg’s Erwartung or Pierrot Lunaire as I
was to Pelleas (or thought I was until now). I’m afraid
that this performance did nothing to convert me, though the
sheer power of Anja Silja’s voice is undeniable. I can only
report that those who are more attuned to the music than I am
recommended her performance in this work and that Tony Haywood
recommended the Silja/Craft reissue of Pierrot Lunaire
(8.557523 – see review).
The recording of both works is good and there are
detailed notes, especially in the case of Erwartung –
but no text and not even a reference to a website where the
text may be found. Nor will you find anything on the Naxos
home-page.
I’m still left wondering why Naxos chose to couple
these two performances – Craft also recorded Verklärte Nacht
for Koch and that would have been a more logical coupling; it
would also probably have sold more copies.
Brian
Wilson
