Gioachino Rossini - Overtures (Neville Marriner)

Information

Composer: Gioachino Rossini

1. Il Barbiere di Siviglia
2. L'Italiana in Algeri
3. La cambiale di matrimonio
4. La scala di seta
5. Tancredi
6. Il Signor Bruschino
7. Il Turco in Italia
8. L'inganno felice

Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
Neville Marriner, conductor

Date: 1974/2002
Label: PentaTone (originally recorded by Philips)

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Review

Ah, Philips must have had a lot faith in surround sound for music back in l974, because quadraphonic sound was seriously dying on the vine by that time and they were still recording in four channels for possible commercial release if a viable multichannel delivery system ever showed up. Well, now 30 years later it has. Pentatone retains the 4.0 channels without remixing for 5.0 or 5.1 and the results are that nothing really seems to be missing. (While the center channel is still a subject of controversy, it’s pretty much agreed the LFE channel is beside the point for classical.)

London’s Brent Town Hall was the venue for this surround session and there’s a good feeling of the hall space. These eight opera overtures were written by Rossini over just four years early in his career, 1810 to 1814. Some of them sound like works from far later, just as the early dates of most Berlioz works may surprise students of music history. Seven of the overtures share a typical Rossini structure: slow introduction, main subject with two themes which is halted by a ritardando, then into a new key before leading to an exciting coda.  All of them are delightful, witty and full of life.  Marriner, who occasionally seems rather sleep-inducing to me, brings out all the Rossini vim and vigor, and the surround sonics make you feel you’re at the center of a wonderful pops concert program free of kitsch. Speaking of that, thanks be for the obviously-planned omission of the William Tell Overture!

-- John Sunier, Audiophile Audition

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Gioachino Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who wrote operas, as well as some sacred music, songs, chamber music and piano pieces. Rossini had been the most popular opera composer in history, and he was one of the most renowned public figures of his time. A tendency for inspired, song-like melodies is evident throughout his scores, earning him the nickname "The Italian Mozart". A few of Rossini's operas remained popular throughout his lifetime and continuously since his death; others were resurrected from semi-obscurity in the last half of the 20th century.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gioachino_Rossini

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Neville Marriner (15 April 1924 – 2 October 2016) is an English conductor. He was one of the most important of the early figures who spearheaded the reawakening of modern interest in Baroque and early Classical music. In the 1950s, he founded Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, and his partnership with them is one of the most recorded of any orchestra and conductor. Marriner made over 600 recordings covering 2,000 different works for various labels, including Argo, L'Oiseau Lyre, Philips and EMI Classics. His recorded repertoire ranges from the baroque era to 20th-century music.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neville_Marriner

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