Gramophone Magazine
August 2024
Editor's Choice

Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Paavo Järvi

Schoenberg: Pelleas und Melisande, Op. 5
Fauré: Pelléas et Mélisande, Op. 80

No fewer than four major composers -- Faure, Debussy, Schoenberg and Sibelius -- were inspired by Maurice Maeterlink's play Pelleas et Melisande (1892). Given that we celebrate anniversaries of Faure and Schoenberg in 2024, Paavo Jarvi here offers his reading of their settings of Pelleas et Melisande with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, whose Music Director he was for almost ten years. Debussy was so much involved with his own operatic setting of Pelleas et Melisande that the famous English actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell turned to Gabriel Faure to write incidental music for the play; this music then became an orchestral suite in four movements that is considered to be Faure's symphonic masterpiece. Schoenberg followed advice given by his much-admired role model Richard Strauss in 1902 and composed his own symphonic poem based on Pelleas et Melisande. Its complex combinations of musical motifs and the rich fabric of the large-scale orchestra not only captivate us but also reveal his own vision of this archaic and yet universal story.