Rossini - Opera Overtures [Halasz-Zagreb Festival Orchestra]
In my early years of compact disc buying, i bought a fair number of Naxos discs, the idea was that they were cheap, and i could get three for £15, instead of a single full priced disc for £15, that's three times the amount of discs!, it made perfect sense back in the early nineties, now because i almost exclusively buy second-hand, that now not a lot of difference, now i just go purely for the best version, plus over the years i've purged lots of iffy discs, so quite a number of those Naxos discs have fallen by the sword, this is one of those that remain, and regardless of the obscure Orchestra, these are scintillating accounts of the Overtures, been a regular in my Blog [28th August 2010 & 7th January 2013].
Michael Halasz is Hungarian, he's now 77, this recording comes from 1989, i must admit that on the whole i don't like the Naxos philosophy of artwork on their covers, and even the back inserts are not very inventive, however i've fallen in love with the music / performance on the disc.
On this listen i really enjoyed Overtures 1, 3 & 5-6, it's hard to pick a winner, but i think that The Silken Ladder just pips it, here's my thoughts on it,
5 The Silken Ladder [6:20] - Like quite a number of Rossini's Overtures, there's a long introduction, the thing takes time to really get going, with long oboe / woodwind lines, and chattering oboe later, before it explodes into full blown orchestral mode [1:54+], and even then the real heart of the piece keeps revealing itself like layers of an onion [2:22+], with excellent use of chattering oboes [2:28-2:42], the woodwind again have a dialogue back and forth [2:42-2:50], i guess Rossini likes to hand out each piece to a certain instrument, and in this Overture it's certainly the oboes, he repeats everything twice, also Rossini is an expert at rhythms, his Overtures are like well oiled machines!.
Michael Halasz is Hungarian, he's now 77, this recording comes from 1989, i must admit that on the whole i don't like the Naxos philosophy of artwork on their covers, and even the back inserts are not very inventive, however i've fallen in love with the music / performance on the disc.
On this listen i really enjoyed Overtures 1, 3 & 5-6, it's hard to pick a winner, but i think that The Silken Ladder just pips it, here's my thoughts on it,
5 The Silken Ladder [6:20] - Like quite a number of Rossini's Overtures, there's a long introduction, the thing takes time to really get going, with long oboe / woodwind lines, and chattering oboe later, before it explodes into full blown orchestral mode [1:54+], and even then the real heart of the piece keeps revealing itself like layers of an onion [2:22+], with excellent use of chattering oboes [2:28-2:42], the woodwind again have a dialogue back and forth [2:42-2:50], i guess Rossini likes to hand out each piece to a certain instrument, and in this Overture it's certainly the oboes, he repeats everything twice, also Rossini is an expert at rhythms, his Overtures are like well oiled machines!.
