There is a strong tradition
in the United States of ‘Pops’ concerts,
developing new audiences with appealing
performances of music that people ‘know
and like’. Most famous among them, over
the years, was the combination of Arthur
Fiedler and the Boston Pops, the orchestra
drawn from the Boston Symphony.
With their enduring
relationship with Telarc, Erich Kunzel
and his Cincinnati Pops Orchestra are
another potent combination in this market.
For example, they have recorded one
of the most spectacular versions of
Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, both as
performance and recording. This collection
of well known overtures suits their
artistic policy and their talents to
perfection.
Proceedings get off
to a spectacular start with the opening
fanfares of Suppé’s Light Cavalry
Overture, the brass in resplendent form,
vividly captured by the Telarc engineers.
Thereafter the performance doesn’t quite
succeed in maintaining the tension,
since the rhythms do not always bite,
but even so there is much to enjoy.
Likewise the Auber
and Hérold pieces have plenty
of orchestral colour to emphasise their
vitality and emotional drive. In short,
they are splendidly vulgar, in the best
sense of the word. Rezniček’s
Donna Diana is perhaps the highlight
of the whole enterprise, with its cunningly
balanced deployment of rhythmic drive
and potent melodic phrases. Above all
it succeeds because it is not a bar
too long, and Kunzel adopts just the
right tempi to maximize these
effects.
The later stages of
Offenbach’s celebrated Orpheus in the
Underworld Overture, comprising the
famous Can-Can, could have been more
intensely driven, but there are some
subtleties of orchestral detail that
come across particularly well. Such
details abound even more in Rossini’s
William Tell Overture, of course. This
veritable tone poem is heard to best
advantage during the more lyrical and
poetic episodes such as the ‘ranz des
vaches’ with its cor anglais solo beautifully
played and atmospherically recorded.
While the final gallop is as exciting
as ever, its initial release seems a
little under-characterised.
With excellent and
detailed insert notes by Richard Rodda,
this is an appealing collection. Individually
the performances may not be the best
in the catalogue, but as a collection
they provide strong competition and
excellent value.
Terry Barfoot
Cincinnati Pops Orchestra/Erich Zunzel 
