Debussy: Le Martyre de Saint-Sébastien - Symphonic Fragments

Whilst Pierre Monteux is to be considered an authority when it comes to the music of Debussy - he led the viola section in the orchestra that premiered Pelléas et Mélisande in 1902 - his late recording of the Martyre fragments with the London SO (1963, barely a year before his death) does not unseat Michael Tilson Thomas' grandiose performance with the same orchestra almost 30 years later. Monteux's is certainly a fine reading and it still sounds fresh on LP, but I personally wonder what the point is of listening only to the symphonic fragments when the 'complete' work is of such dazzling beauty. Curiously, the Fragments miss out on the whole of Act 3 which is the whole work's dramatic and musical climax. I did not revisit the MTT recording apart from re-sampling the First Mansion, The Court of Lilies, which comes off splendidly. You can hear how the orchestra, chorus and singers have been rehearsed to perfection. The recording is finely chiseled, spacious and weighty. I've been trying to find more background information on this work, but remarkably it's hardly mentioned in the Cambridge Companion. I've also discovered that the Brussels Philharmonic is going to perform the complete version in Brussels next February 5th. I've marked the date in red in my diary.