César Franck: Symphony in D Minor – Gabriel Fauré: Pelléas et Mélisande

Album review

This recording of Daniel Barenboïm conducting the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra closes the book, so to speak, on the love story that connects the Argentinian conductor and the famous German institution. Barenboïm first collaborated with the Berlin Philharmonic as a young pianist in 1964, masterfully performing Bartók’s Piano Concerto No.1 at just 21 years of age, at the inaugural concert of their new Philharmonic hall. Five years later, he would return to Berlin, but this time around, as a conductor, launching a very long and fruitful partnership with the orchestra and its musicians. This album, recorded during a concert held in June 2023 dedicated to French repertoire, also highlights Barenboïm’s interest in France, where he lived during his 13-year tenure at the head of the Orchestre de Paris. Yet it’s also Belgium that can be heard during this program, with the Symphony in D-minor by César Frank, from Liège, as well as Fauré’s score for Pelléas et Mélisande, composed for 1911 Nobel prize-winning Maurice Maeterlinck’s symbolist theatre play, also a Belgian-native from Ghent. Daniel Barenboïm interprets Franck’s Symphony in such a way that it feels almost Brucknerian, with slow tempos, huge contrasts, and at the heart of it all, an “allegretto“ that gives off an ineffable sense of melancholy. The ‘finale’ also takes its time, with constant tempo changes and a style that sways the piece further and further towards its Germanic roots. Then, the tone changes with the suite that Fauré had written as a commission for a London theatre production of Pelléas et Mélisande. Throughout the album, we find ourselves amidst a decidedly Germanic atmosphere of unchanging calmness that thinly veils an underlying melancholy. © François Hudry/Qobuz