Following his well-received accounts of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony (6/23) and Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben (4/24), Rafael Payare’s third recording for Pentatone finds the conductor opting for Schoenberg’s two earliest orchestral works, Verklärte Nacht and Pelleas und Melisande. Four pieces, in fact, that all date from just a handful of years around the turn of the 20th century.

In his review of Ein Heldenleben, David Gutman observed that the recorded sound was ‘quite resonant, darker and more Teutonic than the vaporous effect associated with Montreal in the Charles Dutoit era’. The same is true here, reflecting the change of recording location from Saint-Eustache Church in the 1980s and 1990s to the Maison Symphonique de Montréal, the orchestra’s home since 2011. The recording of Pelleas und Melisande is weighty and sumptuous but also slightly veiled, masking some of the inner detail of Schoenberg’s densely textured orchestral palette. The recording of Paavo Järvi’s recent account with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra isn’t ideally transparent but brings the listener closer to the inner workings of the score, as does the engineering for Boulez’s recording with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Nevertheless, in terms of characterisation and authority, Payare’s interpretation, made in association with live performances in April 2024, leaves a strong impression. The playing is detailed and expressive, and in the finale in particular, depicting the death of Melisande, the performance blazes with conviction.

The slight opacity of the recorded sound is of less concern in Verklärte Nacht, heard in Schoenberg’s 1943 arrangement for string orchestra. Payare once again offers a well-paced and impassioned performance, although here the interpretation sometimes sounds a touch generalised in comparison with the finest of the extensive recorded competition. Iona Brown’s interpretation with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, for instance, enjoys a greater sense of agility and drama, while Karajan’s 1973 version continues to impress with its tonal allure and expressive intensity. It’s by no means a poor performance, but Payare’s Pelleas und Melisande is the principal draw here.