Ernest Ansermet - Faure: Pelleas et Melisande/ Debuss: Petite Suite

Debussy, Faure, Schoenberg and Sibelius were all under the spell of the Belgian symbolist Maurice Maeterlinck and set his play Pelleas et Melisande to music in one form or another. Faure's incidental music was the second work, following Debussy's opera, to be based on the tragic story of love, jealousy, death, and forgiveness. Faure's veiled, ambiguous harmonies and compositional style reflect in a quite amazing fashion the atmosphere at which Maeterlinck so often only hinted. The Suite op. 80, which Faure himself put together and orchestrated, is quite rightly called his symphonic masterwork. Here, as again in the Prelude to his only complete opera, Penelope, one can experience the ecstatic, romantic, and - at the same time - refined and delicately woven musical language which often appears somewhat melancholy and veiled. His arching melodies, frequently inspired by Gregorian chant, are tinged with an archaic charm which is also to be found (though less obviously) in his suite Masques et Bergamasques. Ernest Ansermet is in his element here conducting the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande who follow their founder's every wish and let the colours on the composer's palette shine out with delicate brilliance. Debussy's Petite Suite is a fitting work to complement Faure's little-known symphonic aspect. This recording is like a precious gem and deserves a place on every collector's shelf.