 The album was recorded using analogue technology in December 1978 in the Philharmonie, Berlin.Lionel Salter reviewed the album on LP in "Gramophone" in December 1979, comparing it with an earlier recording of the opera conducted by Pierre Boulez.Frederica von Stade, he wrote, "well conveys Mélisande's wide-eyed innocence and simplicity by her purity of voice and lightness of tone, and makes credible the transition from the startled gazelle of the opening to the awakening woman of Act 4".