Salieri was a skilful and talented musician. From the historical point of
view, his reputation suffers from the comparisons which are inevitably made
with the other, greater composers who lived in Vienna at the same time. Yet
to his contemporaries he was a master and arguably the leading musician of
the day. He composed his first opera at the age of eighteen, and his gifts
were recognised six years later, when he was appointed a court composer and
conductor of Italian opera in Vienna; at thirty-eight he had risen to the
position of Court Kapellmeister. He often worked with Lorenzo Da Ponte as
his librettist, and his fame was international. Following the example of his
lifelong friend Gluck, he became an important figure in Paris from around
1784, producing heroic operas to satisfy French taste and scoring his
greatest triumph with the five-act
Tarare (1787).
There is no question that Salieri’s importance lies in opera rather than
in instrumental music, and to some extent this well played instrumental
compilation supports this view. Only one of the pieces is in any way
substantial in being more than five minutes in duration, and that -
Les
Danaïdes – is an operatic transcription. Whether it is Salieri’s own
transcription is unclear from the booklet notes. No matter — it remains the
best music on offer here, and the intense commitment of the playing of the
Amati Quartet makes a quasi-orchestral impression, in the faster sections
particularly.
The other items sound best in the various Concertino pieces when the
excellent oboist Paolo Pollastri joins the ensemble. The first of these
performances is beautifully phrased and balanced.
The music is very well organised in terms of phrasing and instrumental
technique, but none of it is the least bit memorable. The experience of
listening to the entire 48 minutes of the disc is that the effect of the
whole is less than the sum of the parts. If this music was intended as
courtly background by the Imperial Kapellmeister, it certainly achieves its
aim of not engaging the listener’s attention. The recording from 1994 is
clear enough but rather dry.
Terry Barfoot
