MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger


 REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

alternatively
CD: AmazonUK AmazonUS
Download: Classicsonline


Florian Leopold GASSMANN (1729-1774)
Opera Overtures
La notte critica (The Critical Night) Hill 143 (1768) [6.51]
Gli uccellatori (The Birdcatchers) Hill 123 (1759) [5.08]
Filosofia ed amore (Philosophy and Love) Hill 125 (1760) [5.51]
La casa di campagna (The Country House) Hill 65 (1773) [5.15]
La contessina (The Young Countess) Hill 153 (1770) [7.50]
Il viaggiatore ridicolo (The Ridiculous Traveller) Hill 137 (1766) [7.13]
Il filosofo innamorato (The Philosopher in Love) Hill 157 (1771) [6.03]
L’amore artigiano (Love in the Workplace) Hill 138 (1767) [7.18]
Un pazzo ne fa cento (One Madman Makes Many) Hill 127 (1762) [5.26]
Le pescatrici (The Fisherwomen) Hill 159 (1771) [6.33]
Eclipse Chamber Orchestra/Sylvia Alimena
rec. George Washington Masonic Memorial, Alexandria, Virginia, USA, 24 October 2006, 12 March 2007. DDD
Booklet notes in English and German, artists’ biographies in English only
NAXOS 8.570421 [64.10]
Experience Classicsonline


Florian Leopold Gassmann was a German-speaking composer of Bohemian origin. He was born in Brüx which is now Most in the Czech Republic. He had a relatively short life and died unexpectedly at the age of forty-four from complications following an accident where he fell from a carriage. Gassmann composed in various genres from chamber music to oratorio but he is better known for his operas, which were rather popular in his day. Nowadays, his music seems to be amongst the most neglected from the transition between the Baroque and Classical periods.

The scores of most of Gassmann’s operas survive to the present in libraries all over Europe, which is proof of his popularity at the time. His works were performed successfully as far apart as Copenhagen and Lisbon. Like Gluck, who was fifteen years his senior, Gassmann insisted on the integrity of the plots and chose his librettos carefully. He often set to music works by Goldoni (1707-1793) and Metastasio (1698-1782), two of the greatest writers of the time. Gassmann enjoyed great success in Venice from 1757 to 1762 where he lived, composing a new opera each year, mostly for the famous Venetian Carnival season; however, his better known and arguably most memorable operas were composed in Vienna, after he was summoned to the Viennese court, in 1763, to become ballet composer and successor to Gluck. His contract also included the composition of stage works and it was here that he wrote Il viaggiatore ridicolo, L’amore artigiano and La contessina, his most popular operas; all three are comedies (dramma giocoso), set to librettos based on works by Carlo Goldoni. The pinnacle of Gassmann’s career was surely reached in March 1772 when he was appointed Hofkapellmeister (court composer), possibly not only in recognition of his attributes as a composer but also for founding the Tonkünstlersozietät (Society of Musical Artists), created to organise musical events for the general public in Vienna and to care for widows and orphans of its deceased members and musicians. 
Gassmann’s music does not have the dramatic qualities of Mozart - still only a teenager at the time of Gassmann’s death - or the originality of Haydn - Gassmann’s contemporary and only three years younger - but his operas are elegant, graceful pieces, full of cheerful tunes, delicate orchestration and lyrical lines. Their overtures were written, as was customary in those days, in three movements following the fast-slow-fast pattern.

This CD from Naxos brings to the public’s attention the overtures of ten of Gassmann’s operas. For this fact alone, it is a commendable work and, at only just over £5, also very good value for money.

The Eclipse Chamber Orchestra, led by its music director, Sylvia Alimena, applies brightness and joy, demonstrating very effectively the composer’s ability to write well-crafted, rather pretty music in a style that was attractive in his lifetime. Alimena who together with another twenty-two of her colleagues at the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington formed the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra, has had a distinguished career both as a conductor and as a French horn player. Her interpretation of these overtures does full justice to the composer, expressively extracting the typical cheerfulness of this music in charming, attractive and extremely pleasant performances.

I thoroughly enjoyed Gassmann’s music of which I knew little and the interpretation of Alimena with the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra. All overtures are delivered with meticulous care, clear sound and harmony, particularly La notte critica where the enjoyment of the musicians is obvious and rather contagious when one listens to it; La casa di campagna, Gassmann’s last opera, a beautiful, picturesque piece where especially its third movement, with its well depicted rhythm, will make you tap your feet and La contessina that is both charming and completely delightful.  

As always, Naxos continues to record works of quality by neglected composers or to bring us forgotten compositions by better known composers at affordable prices and with very good sound quality. Their recordings may not always be memorable but their commitment to music is never in doubt. This is a feel-good CD that will put a smile on one’s face during a moment of bleakness or a depressive mood through the dark, rainy days of the British winter!

Margarida Mota-Bull

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.