If you want a disc
to make you smile, to lift your spirits,
this is it. Rossini's effervescent music
and the unmatched panache of Reiner's
conducting are a winning formula!
My opening remarks
notwithstanding, I suggest too few serious
music-lovers take Rossini seriously
enough: an ignorant response to a composer
of tremendous range, with as instinctive
a theatrical mind as Mozart's or Verdi's.
That's because, whereas everyone knows
his overtures, hardly anyone knows his
operas. And the overtures - music to
sit down to, to get comfortable to -
seldom represent or typify the operas
they precede. In fact they're normally
lightweight easy-on-the-ear pieces,
comprising a string of tunes and (for
want of a better word) gimmicks - brilliant
orchestral effects, including that distinctive
Rossini trademark, the interminable
crescendo!
In terms of orchestration,
much of this music was state-of-the-art
in the 1820s. The five solo cellos,
the dramatic storm music, and the cor
anglais and flute duet in Guglielmo
Tell are as novel as anything in
Berlioz. And the col legno effects
in Il Signor Bruschino, or the
stereophonic 'answering drums' in La
gazza ladra, are positively avant-garde!
We mustn't underestimate this music.
I think we should be
careful not to over-estimate
these performances, however. I hope
saying this doesn't shock too many of
you: this is, after all, a historic
recording, and the yardstick against
which all Rossini overture discs have
long since been judged! True, they're
exciting, they're dynamic, and they're
spectacularly well played. But they're
just a bit rough at the edges, and rather
explosive - sheer enthusiasm's to blame,
I suggest, that's all! The wide-ranging
(bright and bottom heavy) recording
contributes to the effect. But make
no mistake: it's all tremendous fun!
47 minutes was a well-filled
LP in 1959. But for a CD in 2005, it's
short measure. Good job this isn't going
to cost you an arm and a leg.
A semi-relevant postscript:
as a musician, I get terribly irritated
hearing the word crescendo used
to mean 'noise' or 'confusion' - even
the BBC do it, for heaven's sake! (As
in "she got herself worked up to a crescendo!")
English, we're told, is in a state of
flux: continuous transition and development.
But crescendo, I insist, means
'getting gradually louder'. This disc
provides you with 17 examples (I've
counted them, okay?) and lasting proof
that Rossini's right and the rest of
the world is wrong!
Peter J Lawson
see also review
by Jonathan Woolf
Chicago Symphony Orchestra/Fritz Reiner
