Most recordings of
Schoenberg's tone poem Pelleas und Melisande are of the blonde bombshell variety. They're big. They're built. They're over the top. And they can't act. Think of
Barbirolli's,
Böhm's, or especially
Karajan's recordings: no matter how gorgeous they are and how emotional they get, the listener is ultimately left unmoved an unimpressed.
Not so in
Matthias Bamert's 1988 recording with the Scottish National Orchestra. More of the slim, trim, tight, and taut variety,
Bamert's Pelleas is transparent, translucent, luminous, radiant, beguiling, mysterious, tragic, and ultimately very, very moving. While this might not sound like the Pelleas that generations of listeners have learned to love, newer listeners who want to be seduced rather than bludgeoned might find
Bamert's Pelleas more attractive.
Instead of
Bamert's recording of Webern's Passacaglia, which appeared with the original release of
Schoenberg's Pelleas, there is
Schoenberg's Piano Concerto by pianist
Amalie Malling with conductor
Michael Schønwandt leading the
Danish National Symphony Orchestra. While some may regret the loss of the Webern, others might appreciate the longer and rarer Piano Concerto, especially when played with such character and strength. Chandos' reissued sound is now as it was then very clean, but just a little bit too hard.