Debussy/Fauré - La Mer/Pelléas and Mélisande

The Guardian 80

DSO/Ticciati/Kožená
(Linn)

If you’re used to hearing Robin Ticciati with the fleet-footed Scottish Chamber Orchestra, then the pure heft of this recording – his first as music director of Berlin’s Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester – might take a bit of getting used to. It’s exciting, and it bodes well. The orchestra has a powerful engine that always feels on the verge of breaking loose, but Ticciati harnesses the depth and drive of that energy and adds some gorgeously febrile stuff. Maybe some of the corners aren’t as nimble as they’ll become a few years into his new job, but Fauré’s Prelude to Penelope surges and sweeps, Debussy’s Pelléas and Mélisande suite has a rich, sombre beauty and La Mer sounds robust, brooding and vast. Magdalena Kožená sings Debussy’s Ariettes Oubliées (as orchestrated by Brett Dean) with a steely grandeur.