Pierre Boulez Conducts Debussy

Sony Classical is pleased to announce an exceptional new batch of reissues from the CBS/Sony and RCA Victor/BMG back catalogues. This latest instalment of the popular series showcases two of the most fascinating and provocative conductors of the last half century, as well as two legendary string quartets and some remarkable pianists playing treasures of Viennese Classicism.

In 1970 Boulez capped his CBS Debussy series, reissued here on 5 CDs, with a revolutionary interpretation of the composer's operatic masterwork Pelléas et Mélisande. It was recorded in conjunction with a rapturously acclaimed new production at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, with a superb cast including Elisabeth Söderström as Mélisande, George Shirley as Pelléas and Donald McIntyre as Golaud. The sessions took place immediately following the series of performances, and the recording's release was met with the same words of praise that reviewers had lavished on the London staging: "I have never heard 'Pelléas' so superbly performed ... Boulez's sense of the music''?s movement ... is uncannily exact" (New York Times); "A performance of much interest and many beauties ... for the lucidity and elegance of its orchestral playing, the thoughtfulness of its approach ... Söderström and Shirley give highly individual performances of great expressivity" (High Fidelity).