Tchaikovsky - Capriccio Italien [Dutoit-Orchestre Symphonique De Montreal]
Here's a lovely disc of Tchaikovsky Overtures and Ballet music, a great introduction to the Composer, but much more too, it's a great way to collect some of his lets say 'war' music, with a generous 65 minutes of music, everything on here i so much enjoyed, even the 1812 Overture, which is in danger of become too well known and played, this disc makes me realise even more what a wealth of glorious tunes Tchaikovsky had inside of him, appeared in my Blog a few years back [25th December 2011].
Charles Dutoit is Swiss, he's now 78, this disc was recorded in 1986, though is a reissue of an earlier disc, the front booklet cover is a painting [by Christian Sell], showing the Franco-Prussian war, i don't usually like paintings as front covers of dics, but this is an excellent one, showing sharp detail, there's a certain diagonal top left to bottom right line of attack in the picture, the lettering is great too, though i have somewhat of an issue with promoting '1812' over the other works on the disc.
On this listen i was really impressed with Capriccio Italien, not an Overture as such, it's really a Fantasy, it was composed from a trip that Tchaikovsky took to Rome, and seeing a Carnival, but there's certainly elements of military and marching to the whole thing, its opening trumpet / brass fanfare is excellent [0:00-0:41], sharp and strong and noble, almost a call to arms, and then right after comes a march like beat by the horns / lower brass, while the strings play an ominous tune of their own [0:42-2:07], it's has an excellent 'beat' to it, one of the best things in the piece, it's when the opening fanfare comes back in more glory [2:55-3:11], and now the strings are creating the march, with the woodwind the melody [3:19-3:56], and then comes the carnival music [4:16+], a lot happier and fun, but still has that element of military march about it, after a theme as such, Tchaikovsky creates variations of it, each one seemingly more sparkling than the rest [5:02+], trumpets and glockenspiel, there's a certain waltz about the thing too, Tchaikovsky revels in the glockenspiel [6:12+], and the music has a real sparkle about it, there's also a certain degree of Spanish Flamenco to the central section [7:22+], where also a strong waltz comes into play, but the ominous opening vibes come back [9:41+], towards the end there's brilliant string and brass playing, quick and sharp [11:12+], eventually leading onto a majestic statement of the carnival tune [13:07+], at the end you might think it's going to break out into the 1812 Overture, a lovely kaleidoscope of sounds.
Here's Jurowski conducting this piece on YouTube.
Charles Dutoit is Swiss, he's now 78, this disc was recorded in 1986, though is a reissue of an earlier disc, the front booklet cover is a painting [by Christian Sell], showing the Franco-Prussian war, i don't usually like paintings as front covers of dics, but this is an excellent one, showing sharp detail, there's a certain diagonal top left to bottom right line of attack in the picture, the lettering is great too, though i have somewhat of an issue with promoting '1812' over the other works on the disc.
On this listen i was really impressed with Capriccio Italien, not an Overture as such, it's really a Fantasy, it was composed from a trip that Tchaikovsky took to Rome, and seeing a Carnival, but there's certainly elements of military and marching to the whole thing, its opening trumpet / brass fanfare is excellent [0:00-0:41], sharp and strong and noble, almost a call to arms, and then right after comes a march like beat by the horns / lower brass, while the strings play an ominous tune of their own [0:42-2:07], it's has an excellent 'beat' to it, one of the best things in the piece, it's when the opening fanfare comes back in more glory [2:55-3:11], and now the strings are creating the march, with the woodwind the melody [3:19-3:56], and then comes the carnival music [4:16+], a lot happier and fun, but still has that element of military march about it, after a theme as such, Tchaikovsky creates variations of it, each one seemingly more sparkling than the rest [5:02+], trumpets and glockenspiel, there's a certain waltz about the thing too, Tchaikovsky revels in the glockenspiel [6:12+], and the music has a real sparkle about it, there's also a certain degree of Spanish Flamenco to the central section [7:22+], where also a strong waltz comes into play, but the ominous opening vibes come back [9:41+], towards the end there's brilliant string and brass playing, quick and sharp [11:12+], eventually leading onto a majestic statement of the carnival tune [13:07+], at the end you might think it's going to break out into the 1812 Overture, a lovely kaleidoscope of sounds.
Here's Jurowski conducting this piece on YouTube.
