Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht, Pelleas und Melisande [CD]

This is no doubt one of the finest Karajan recordings and I haven't come across more intensely beautiful and inspired rendition of Verklärte Nacht yet. The colour, the atmosphere, the richness and the sublimity of the music Karajan manages to draw from the orchestra are simply awe-inspiring. Must-buy for any serious collecters!

This stupendous performance of "Verklärte Nacht" became instantly even more attractive when it was re-released on DG Originals coupled this time with the "Pelleas und Melisande" symphonic poem rather than the "Variations", which remains unapproachable for most music-lovers - including me - whereas I love pre-twelve-tone Schoenberg. They make a much more obvious and natural pairing, too, being written within three years of each other, although the 1899 Opus 4 work so clearly still belongs within the Romantic camp and the 1902/3 Opus 5 marks the advent of a new voice - if not the more challenging Schoenberg of later years - with its emphasis on individual instrumental voices rather than the blanket of chromatic sound which enwraps you in "Verklärte Nacht".

Schoenberg, von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic are all three here at their most alluring; this is later Karajan at his best in a period which also produced such beautiful recordings as his "Madama Butterfly" - by no means all mid-70's Karajan was mannered and self-conscious. The music suits perfectly the silky virtuosity of the orchestra and the sound is of demonstration quality for its age (the merest tape hiss). Karajan brings overwhelming passion and intensity to those thrilling climaxes when the strings in unison sing out their hymn of forgiveness under a starlit winter sky. I know no music like for its sense of soaring ecstasy and coruscating tenderness. I enjoy the "Pelleas" which is very much on the cusp of the sea-change which Schoenberg effected in his style, with one foot in each century, so to speak. I do not pretend to adore it as I do the first work, but it is sweeping, surging, programmatic music well suited to the tragic tale it portrays but a little too fragmented and episodic to my ears, as if Schoenberg is trying to pack too much into limited space.

Bearing in mind that the original Opus 4 was composed for string sextet, I also recommend that anyone who loves this piece should own the wonderful 1950 recording made by the augmented Hollywood String Quartet in clean mono (coupled with a superb Schubert String Quintet).

You will find on this CD a performance of Schoenberg's Pelleas & Melisande which is as seductively pleasing as any on record - but the single most persuasive argument for buying this disc is the truly glorious performance of Verklarte Nacht, or Transfigured Night. I first heard the work over twenty five years ago and it was love upon first hearing. The work was created in response to Richard Dehmel's lovely poem (included in the sleeve notes) and was originally conceived as a work for string quartet. No quartet performance has ever managed however to convince me that this was ever meant to be anything less than a piece for full string orchestra; it simply doesn't realise its potential in so sparse an ensemble. Over the years I have listened to numerous performances; some are very well performed but poorly served in the studio; others have brilliantly clear recordings but lack the inner fire and passion needed to fully ignite the experience. Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic conjured up one of the very finest and most memorable recordings of all in this version - lush, uncompromisingly romantic, poignant, wistful, lavishly and heart-stoppingly beautiful. When you hear this it is not hard to understand Mahler's interest in the young Schoenberg, who held such obvious promise. Perhaps Schoenberg's descent into the abyss of twelve-tone music soon after this high spot indicated that this was a work impossible to follow in traditional terms? Who knows? What is certain is there are few more hauntingly lovely and extravagantly romantic scores in existence. And this, in spite of the most minor flaws in its recording, is and will undoubtedly remain one of the greatest performances of this extraordinary work on record. To listen is to partake in a genuinely spiritual experience which leaves one both drained and edified upon its conclusion. There is incandescent beauty here of the kind that makes you hold your breath, a shimmering, achingly lovely, transcendent joyfulness mingled with and exquisite bittersweetness that few works can match in intensity of expression. This is not the most lucid, detailed recording in purely technical terms, but that is of very little consequence here, for this is music-making at its very best, when everything comes together to serve the composer's intentions perhaps better than he might ever have wished. You'll not be likely to want to hear the quartet version again after this. Wholeheartedly and unreservedly recommended.