Late in his life, Otto Klemperer sniffed dismissively at it. “[It] isn’t Schoenberg’s greatest work,” he said, “not at all.” The late Alan Rich was more to the point: “If you believe, as I once did, that Ein Heldenleben is the ugliest of all major orchestral works, you don’t know Schoenberg’s Pelleas und Melisande.”
Their derision notwithstanding, Schoenberg’s sprawling tone poem has (along with Verklärte Nacht and the Gurre-Lieder) remained one of the composer’s most enduringly popular works, even over a century after its creation. Well, perhaps not “popular,” but orchestras seem to program it fairly regularly and audiences do not seem to mind.
In recent years Edward Gardner has become one of Chandos’ house conductors, with surveys of music by Janáček, Bartók, Britten, and Lutosławski already under his belt. Having delivered a fine Gurre-Lieder awhile back, Gardner now turns to Schoenberg’s other early exercise in post-Wagnerian hyper-romanticism.
Pelleas und Melisande is certainly a score which has led a charmed life on records, beginning with Winfried Zillig’s excellent Telefunken recording from 1949. This latest release, played by the Bergen Philharmonic, is another distinguished addition to its discography. Chandos’ spacious, larger-than-life sound befits this cryptic, dream-like, yet curiously phonogenic music; a Begleitmusik avant la lettre.
Gardner is a precise and sensitive guide through this phantasmagorical soundscape, pellucidly articulating Schoenberg’s orchestration and counterpoint (listen to the haunting layering of instrumental color beginning at :37 on track 3, or the ebbing away of Melisande’s life depicted at the start of track 12). His Danish strings, though lacking the last bit of opulence that one hears in first-rank orchestras, play with great polish and expressive nuance. Their judicious use of portamenti are especially welcome, highlighting the proto-cinematic qualities of early Schoenberg. (Franz Waxman and Max Steiner must have studiously cribbed off of Pelleas for their later film scores.)
On a lesser plane is the performance of Erwartung that is Pelleas’ discmate. Excellently played and sung though it is, Gardner lacks the ability to fully unleash this score’s expressive vehemence; nor does his soloist, soprano Sara Jakubiak, have the vocal heft and dramatic urgency required. For that, listeners are directed to Jessye Norman with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra under James Levine (Philips), Anja Silja and the Vienna Philharmonic under Christoph von Dohnányi (Decca); and if vintage sound is not an impediment, Dorothy Dow and the New York Philharmonic with Dimitri Mitropoulos (Sony), and the volatile rendering of Helga Pilarczyk with the NDR Philharmonic under Hermann Scherchen (Wergo).
Recommended for Gardner’s superb Pelleas.
Let Gardner be your guide through Schoenberg’s Pelleas und Melisande.