I would love to be able to ask the person responsible
for this disc why these particular works were chosen and why
it has been given the title “Festive Overtures and Preludes”.
Two of them were indeed written for particular festive occasions,
although as there are no notes whatsoever on the music you are
left wondering what was being celebrated. In fact the Weber,
which quotes from what we know as “God save the Queen”, was
written for the 50th Jubilee of the King of Saxony,
and the Meyerbeer, which quotes “Rule Britannia”, for the 1862
London World Exhibition. Both are entertaining to hear, although
perhaps best not too often. All of the other pieces are overtures
or preludes to operas. The two French preludes effectively set
the mood for the opera that follows, but neither makes much
impression on its own. The remaining three overtures however
are much more worth hearing, especially the Schubert, a work
surprisingly rarely played in the concert hall. The early Wagner
is strongly indebted to Weber and arguably too long for its
material, but nonetheless enjoyable. The Suppé is a splendid
collection of tunes from an excellent but too little known operetta,
and even more obviously enjoyable.
But why bring them together? This is a clear
victim of a format with up to 80 minutes to fill - although
in fact there are less than 60 minutes of music here - and no
obvious way of picking a series of short pieces. The result
here is emphatically not a disc to play straight through, and
without any obvious reason to the order in which they are placed,
which is as above. As an alternative, the title could have been
taken more literally. There are many concert overtures with
the words “festive” or “festival” in the title – Shostakovich,
Richard Rodney Bennett and Lortzing spring immediately to mind.
I have no doubt that, with a little research, there would be
scope for several collections of that sort. Alternatively a
disc of rare operatic overtures, if scarcely a new idea, would
always be welcome. Again many possibilities suggest themselves
– what about Flotow’s “Alessandro Stradella”, Mancinelli’s “Cleopatra”,
Adam’s “Le Brasseur de Preston” or Erkel’s “Hunyadi Laszlo”,
to name only overtures I have been wanting to hear for many
years. There are many hundreds more and the music is easily
available in libraries for anyone willing to try them. However
when a disc of this type is put together, it is essential that
the listener should be told something about the works on it
and why they have been brought together. The presentation here,
with notes only about the conductor and orchestra, is singularly
unhelpful in this regard and shows a lack of respect for both
the listener and the music.
I have written so far only about the music. The
performances are fresh and enjoyable but there is little that
is outstanding about them. Similar comments could be made about
the recording, which also gives The Colosseum - the former Watford
Town Hall - an unexpected amount of reverberation at times.
It is hard to see this disc as an essential addition to any
collection although I am glad to have had the chance to hear
it. Given the obvious trouble and expense involved in its production
I can only see this as an opportunity for an interesting and
attractive disc wasted, along with the efforts of the performers
involved.
John Sheppard
Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra/Walter Proost 
TALENT DOM 2929 101 [59:40] 
