The principal attraction of this second installment in Naxos’ complete Debussy cycle lies in Marius Constant’s 25 well-put-together minutes of music from the opera Pelléas et Mélisande. It’s decently played, and if you can’t find the excellent Supraphon recording, or find its coupling unacceptable (Sibelius’ eponymous incidental music), then this makes an acceptable alternative, and it’s easily the best performance on the disc. As for the remainder of the program, Jun Märkl shows himself no more sympathetic to Debussy’s music than in his first go-round.
In the Nocturnes, Nuages starts too loud and offers scant atmosphere. The orchestra sounds surprisingly shaky in Fêtes–note the trumpets in the central procession–and despite fine work from the excellent MDR Choir in Sirènes, the tempo drags. Michael Jarrell’s orchestration of three of Debussy’s Etudes for piano is just awful. The first two (“For repeated notes”, and “For opposed sonorities”) make no sense at all as music absent their original keyboard context, while the last (the study in chords) is overwhelmed by completely unidiomatic percussion. The shorter pieces are okay, but so what? For diehard Pelléas fans only.
