BaL 20.04.13 - Debussy's Pelléas et Melisande

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

9.30am Building a Library
Christopher Cook with a personal recommendation from recordings of Debussy's opera, Pelléas et Melisande.


Available recordings:-

Vienna State Opera, VPO, Abbado
L’Orchestra de la Suisse Romande, Ansermet
Radio-SymphonieOrchester Wien, Arnold Schonberg Choir, Bertrand de Billy (DVD)
Royal Opera House Chorus & Orchestra, Boulez
Welsh National Opera, Boulez (DVD)
Lille National Orchestra & Nord-Pas-de-Calais Chorus, Jean-Claude Casadesus
Bavarian Radio SO, Cluytens
French National Radio Orchestra, Raymond St. Paul Choir, Cluytens
New York Metropolitan Opera, Emil Cooper
Glyndebourne Opera, Sir Andrew Davis (DVD)
Orchestre de la Scoiete des Concerts du Conservatoire de Paris, Roger Désormière
Paris Conservatoire Choir & Orchestra, Desormiere (download)
Montreal SO. Dutoit
English National Opera Orchestra and Chorus, Elder
Opera Lyon, Gardiner (DVD)
Glyndebourne, RPO, Gui
Orchestra National de France, Haitink
Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Chorus, Désiré-Émile Ingelbrecht
Orchestre National de l’Opera de Monte-Carlo, Armin Jordan
Paris National Opera, Jordan (DVD)
Theatre Imperial de Compiegne, Pierre Jourdan (DVD)
Berlin Opera, BPO, Karajan
RAI Rome, Karajan
Bayerischen Rundfunks, Kubelik
New York Metropolitan Opera, Morel
Zurich Opera House, Franz Welser-Most (DVD/Blu-ray)

[Bryn]

My first was:



Difficult to find now.

[Flosshilde]

While we are reminiscing about the old BBC boards (cf An old lady dies ...) who was it who was almost as keen on P & M as EA is on a certain symphonic poem?

[visualnickmos]

French National Radio Orchestra, Raymond St. Paul Choir, Cluytens

Strangely, I have this; a "freebie" with the newspaper Le Monde a couple of years ago - and it's very enjoyable indeed, and a 2007 remastering.

Jacques Jansen, Victoria de Los Angeles, Gérard Souzay, Pierre Froumenty, Jeannine Collard, Françoise Ogeas, Jean Vieuille

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

While we are reminiscing about the old BBC boards (cf An old lady dies ...) who was it who was almost as keen on P & M as EA is on a certain symphonic poem?

Oh, I remember who you mean, but can't recollect his (?I presume) nom-de-web.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

While we are reminiscing about the old BBC boards (cf An old lady dies ...) who was it who was almost as keen on P & M as EA is on a certain symphonic poem?

Mandalee?

[BBMmk2]

That sir Andrew Davis DVD, looks rather good?

[Flosshilde]

Yes, that certainly rings a bell.


I'm afraid I find P&M intensely tedious, so it's not a BaL I will mind missing

[Tapiola]

E-A,

I believe there are two Ansermets currently in the catalogue - a mono version with OSR on Eloquence and a stereo 60s remake with the same band.

I have 3 and a bit recordings of Pelleas. Emil Cooper, the Desormiere and the mono Ansermet. plus the 1927-8 extracts conducted by Coppola and Truc. I would be without none of them (admittedly all historic).

[Julien Sorel]

Mandalee?

Eric? I love Pelléas et Mélisande; I have the Boulez and Haitink recordings and Gardiner, Boulez and de Billy on DVD. So I really shouldn't indulge further.

[Bryn]

Eric was more an afternoon faune man, surely?

[Tapiola]

Eric was more an afternoon faune man, surely?

Funnily enough, the Membran release of the Desormiere Pelleas contains a Toscanini Faune as a filler. It's a stinker imo.

[ostuni]

I've had the Baudo recording for years, but never really got into the piece. But I recorded Gardiner's performance at the Proms last year (with ORR, and Karen Vourc'h as a wonderfully fragile Mélisande), fell in love with the piece, and assembled a number of recordings - Haitink (same good Golaud - Naouri - as Gardiner, but often a bit slow and unfocussed), the stereo Ansermet (1964; wonderfully menacing George London as Golaud, idiomatically French Camille Mauranne as Pelléas, and very Gallic timbres from the OSR) and, my favourite, Armin Jordan, with Rachel Yakar, Eric Tappy, and Philippe Huttenlocher all excellent.

I'll have to have a listen to the BaLafter I'm back from my birthday jaunt to NYC over that weekend

[amateur51]

I've had the Baudo recording for years, but never really got into the piece. But I recorded Gardiner's performance at the Proms last year (with ORR, and Karen Vourc'h as a wonderfully fragile Mélisande), fell in love with the piece, and assembled a number of recordings - Haitink (same good Golaud - Naouri - as Gardiner, but often a bit slow and unfocussed), the stereo Ansermet (1964; wonderfully menacing George London as Golaud, idiomatically French Camille Mauranne as Pelléas, and very Gallic timbres from the OSR) and, my favourite, Armin Jordan, with Rachel Yakar, Eric Tappy, and Philippe Huttenlocher all excellent.

I'll have to have a listen to the BaLafter I'm back from my birthday jaunt to NYC over that weekend

Many happy returns ostuni and enjoy your NY trip

[Barbirollians]

The Ingelbrecht received a rave review in IRR recently.