The surprising thing about these three discs is that the performances get better the further we depart from the shores of Romanticism and tonality. Not what you'd expect from von K and the Berliners.

Pelleas benefits from wonderfully lush orchestral playing from the Berlin Philharmonic, but it feels more like very colourful scene painting rather than real drama. To get to the Romantic heart of this piece, try Barbirolli: for its expressionist, forward looking (via Verklarte Nacht to Erwartung) side, go to Boulez. Verklarte Nacht fares better as a performance (more drama here) and the Berlin strings have magnificent depth and richness - perhaps too much, bearing in mind that it was originally a String Sextet.

The Berg Orchestral Pieces go extremely well, too. Unsurprisingly, it is their roots in Mahler and beyond him to Wagner that strike one first. Then one begins to speculate on a Karajan Wozzeck which might have been well worth the hearing. Like Verklarte Nacht, the pieces from the Lyric Suite feel a little overblown in comparison to their String Quartet originals.

But the big surprise is that the best things on these discs are the Schoenberg Variations and especially the Webern pieces. The Op.1 Passacaglia still has its feet firmly rooted in the world of Bergian Romanticism and Karajan plays this up to the full. But as we progress through the succession of Webern's exquisite miniatures via the two sets of Orchestra Pieces to the Symphony, Karajan proves himself a master of Webernian line, of maintaining cohesion as melodic threads pass subtly from instrument to instrument. He is also, less surprisingly, a master of Webern as an expert orchestral colourist. Karajan always manages to sustain an ideal balance between different instruments and instrumental groupings even at the lowest dynamic levels.

Karajan is no Boulez, casting a modernist's crystalline analytical gaze on these pieces - Webern as the father of the Darmstadt school of total serialism. Karajan approaches them from the other, Romantic side of the Schoenberg atonal/12-tone divide. Accept that point of view and these are very satisfying performances indeed. It makes one sorry that he didn't devote more time to the repertoire of the Second Viennese School. A Karajan Moses und Aron or Lulu could have been fascinating.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Lush and expressive is the only way to summarise this., 4 Nov 1999

By A Customer

The Tone Poem Pelleas and Melisande is not generally considered a notable work by Schoenberg. Written in a late Romantic style that owes much to Wagner and Strauss. Here Schoenberg stretches romantic idiom to the full and along with his Gurrelieder Pelleas is considered the final statement of this period. Composed for a large orchestra, the contrapuntal writing is very dense. It is often critised for this reason, but it is also one of the more wonderful aspects of it. Yes at times it is hard to isolate singles lines, but the power and emotion generated by this web is so very gripping. The form of Pelleas can be seen as a four movement symphony compressed into one movement or as a succession of scenes taken from the Maeterlink's drama. Schoenberg employs Wagners Leitmotif method to express the characters. The Berlin Philarmonic performance of Pelleas, under the baton of Karajan is masterly. Quite clearly the best recording to date of this neglected piece. Karajan achieves in combining the intense emotional impact this piece can povide while retaining the clarity and precision needed to fully express Schoenberg's complex score. The recording is generally well balanced and the playing from the Berliners is lush as one might expect. The nearest comparison to this reading of Pelleas would be Boulez with the Chicago Symphony. Although a clearer recording and in some ways a technically improved one from the Orchestras point of view, at no time does it begin to match the expression and emotional impact that this highly romantic piece offers under Karajan. If you can find the edition of this disc coupled with Schoenberg's Verklarte Nacht. You have two of the most gripping and expressive pieces ever written. This is a must.

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