A sculpture can never be seen from all sides at once; despite
this, all its sides are worked out to the same degree. Almost
all composers proceed in the same way when handling the
orchestra - they realize even details that are not under all
circumstances going to be audible.
Thus
wrote Arnold Schoenberg on the challenges of orchestration.With
no shortage of Rossini overture anthologies available in the
catalog (and some yielding extraordinarily fine performances
indeed), yet another collection jumping into a crowded pool
might seem like a wilful act of redundancy. There is admittedly
no shortage of eminently recommendable anthologies of Rossini's
(pictured left) overture music, not a few of which are
competing on both price, mid-range and budget, as well as
performance.
But
I'll tell you why this new release compels our listening:
Rossini's picturesque orchestrations often contain important
textures which have changed significantly as instruments evolved
into their current-day incarnations, and the weightier approach
by many full-sized symphonies don't always give the best
representation of the composer's writing. For example, players
(or worse, conductors) often fall prey to the temptation to
unduly highlight a section to the detriment of the overall
balance. Or, as Schoenberg so astutely points out, sometimes
even under the best circumstances, the loss of detail is
inevitable.
|
As an item of interest
to Rossini afficionados, Riccardo Chailly has been
making the rounds of Rossini's less-explored music
with various Italian orchestras - including the La
Scala Philharmonic, Bologna Teatro Comunale
Orchestra and the Milan Giuseppe Verdi Symphony. In
particular, with the last orchestra he has recorded
a collection ("Rossini Discoveries") of Rossini's
musical curios, including seven world premiere
recordings (Decca 470 298-2). This anthology
presents familiar favourites like the ballet music
from
William Tell, but
also includes the unheard overtures to
Ermione and
Robert Bruce, the
latter proving to be a pastiche cobbled from three
other works. And the two anthems which close this
set, Italy and France
and The Hymn to
Napoleon III
are as jingoistically bombastic as their titles
suggest. |
The
use of a precision ensemble, such as a group as surgical and
dexterous as OlaRudner
and his stylish Tasmanian Symphony musicians, perhaps goes some
way to ameliorate the problems of clarity faced by larger bands.
It is from this standpoint that we get a refreshing new look at
old repertoire in this classy collection of nine evergreens from
Rossini. These are smashing new interpretations from a modern
band which tips its hat to its predecessors - it contains a bit
of Reiner's electricity, Menuhin's flair, Levi's colours and
Marriner's fastidious precision, all of which is topped off with
Rudner's own characteristic lightness of touch.
The
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra have been making some inroads into
the catalog: they've been recording for Chandos and Hyperion
under guest conductor-soloist Howard Shelley, and have also
recently embarked on a campaign to systematically document the
symphonic works of major Australian composers with ABC Classics.
This is a disciplined group of musicians which respond to
Rudner's direction with finesse: listen to the solo woodwinds in
The Barber of Seville or The Silken Ladder, or the
articulate brasses in Semiramide. The string playing is
first-rate, smart and opulent.
Rudner
(pictured left) has clearly thought through very
carefully about what he wants to do with this music, and it
shows in his quicksilver turns of tempi, touches of humour and
bags of incandescent energy. He infuses, for example, each of
the "movements" in the four-section overture to
William Tell
with its own character, aided by superb solo instrumental
playing: the brasses in the storm perorate with some menace, and
the famous cavalry gallop at the conclusion is simply brilliant,
in more than one sense of the word.
In
the debit column, the familiar ambience of the Federation
Concert Hall in Hobart is a bit too spacious for this music, and
the low sonorities tend to be a bit bottom-heavy, clouding the
basses in shadow (especially pronounced during the
fortissimos). A bit
more, I think, could have been done to balance out the
sonorities and eliminate the "large empty hall" acoustic, but
the sound is otherwise quite amply atmospheric. The only other
drawback, it might appear, is this album's full-price retail
cost, which makes it uncompetitive against the other mid-range,
budget and even ultra-budget Rossini collections in issue. Then
again, Erin Helyard's erudite program notes are among the best
as any I've seen in any
release, and that exemplary quality counts for something, too.
Definitely a worthwhile addition to the catalog.
More about Ola Rudner
http://www.kdschmid.de/englisch/02kuenst/1kuenstler.php3?k_id=205
