A Singer's Notes by Keith Kibler 42 - Listening to Pelléas: the Classic 1941 Recording under Désormières as reissued by Andante, EMI, and Pristine Classical

December 1, 2011 •


Pellas-78-cover
Pelléas et Mélisande, premiere recording, 1941

Very few recordings really deserve to be called iconic, but the 1941 recording of Claude Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande, conducted by Roger Désormière, is one. Native speakers are part of its excellence. There is a kind of lightness in the orchestral textures which is usually thought of as French, but this aspect of the recording is frequently overstated. A direction in the conducting which keeps the pace nearly conversational is fundamental. Newer recordings ofPelléas are almost all slower, even much slower. This, like the first BöhmFrau ohne Schatten is a recording surrounded by war- and both have the atmosphere of artists striving to give their native musical cultures a permanence, when permanence is mortally threatened. It is a beautiful thing that in a culture surrounded and eventually occupied by horror, these artists have given us the version of Pelléas which is the most French. No Golaud since has mastered the combination of clarity and beauty in the delivery of the Gallic language like Henri Etcheverry. For me this is the finest aspect of the recording. Etcheverry produces intensity after intensity without overstating, and this makes the hair-pulling scene almost unlistenable. The Mélisande, Irène Joachim, (yes, she is the grand-daughter of Josef Joachim) studied the role with its creator Mary Garden. She finds a living, breathing middle line between innocence and seduction. Of all Mélisandes on disc, she may be the hardest to locate between these poles. Anyone interested in French singing must listen to this recording.

Read the full review on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!