Prelude a L'apres-midi D'un/Pelleas et Melisande op. 5 [CD]

This album marks the beginning of a new era with Lahav Shani as chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic. On his first album with the orchestra, he presents two masterpieces from the early days of modern music.

Claude Debussy’s *Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune* is considered a key work of Impressionism and, even at its premiere, captivated audiences with its finely nuanced timbres and transparent orchestral texture.

Arnold Schoenberg’s symphonic poem *Pelleas and Melisande*, on the other hand, is a work of monumental orchestral brilliance and relentless intensity—an early work that, while still rooted in the tonal tradition of Wagner, Mahler, and Strauss, yet is characterized by a creative boldness that already foreshadows the dawn of a new era.