Rossini - Opera Overtures [Marriner-Academy Of Saint Martin In The Fields]Only the second Rossini disc in my Blog this year, and yet i love these Overtures, i honestly believe that Rossini was better at writing an Opera Overture than he was at writing an Opera Aria!, some of his Arias, especially 'Uno Voce A Poco Fa' are almost just empty vocal runs up and down the scales, all hot air with no poetry or even creative sizzle, but his Overtures are a different story, they lack atmosphere yes, but at the same time they're almost like military marches, there's a precision to them, and different layers and gears within the piece, they dart and move all over the place like a fairground roller-coaster, and just as fun and exciting too.
Neville Marriner was born in England in 1924, it seems he's been at the helm of The Academy Of Saint Martin In The Fields for what seems forever [he originally founded this group in 1959], he has recorded very extensively for the Philips Label, and this recording was made in 1987, Marriner is now 86, and still going strong.
On this listen i was enthralled by the opening 'La Gazza Ladra' [The Thieving Magpie], it's certainly very military as i pointed out earlier, with drum rolls and stately marches, at the start the woodwind are like a bunch of pipers leading a military band, with the snare / side drum in tow [0:12-2:05], and yet the whole thing itself is just an intro to the main piece!, a skittish tune from the strings and flute [2:30-3:29], punctuated by some military outbursts, eventually this explodes into a brass forte [3:29+], the best part of the Overture is what i can only describe as a military waltz [5:26+] side drum chatters away, while woodwind play the main tune, until this also explodes in a brass outburst [6:25+], this very section returns later [8:20+ & 9:20+], Rossini ties things up in knots, only to have that ahh moment when he looses them later in a wonderful resolution!, there's almost intros within intros with Rossini, it's start / stop, start / stop, like a traffic jam that gets going and comes to a stop again, it's such a tease, like different theme's on a circular conveyor belt, tunes / themes come around again and again, you get no plain vanilla ice cream from Rossini, he seems to throw every ingredient into his concoctions!, but the whole thing isn't chaos, but rather a precision kaleidoscope, i love Rossini for his military Opera Overtures.
Here's Marriner conducting The Thieving Magpie on YouTube.
