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Overtures Archive

SCHUBERT: Arias and Overtures = Schubert’s Stage Music – Daniel Behle, tenor/ L’Orfeo Barockorchester/ Michi Gaigg – Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 

SCHUBERT: Arias and Overtures = Schubert’s Stage Music – Daniel Behle, tenor/ L’Orfeo Barockorchester/ Michi Gaigg – Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 

by | Jul 25, 2017 | Classical CD Reviews

SCHUBERT: Arias and Overtures = Schubert’s Stage Music [Listing below] – Daniel Behle, tenor/ L’Orfeo Barockorchester/ Michi Gaigg – Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 88985407212, 59:30 95/26/17) [Distr. by Sony] ****: Rare arias from Schubert opera and singspiel reveals a wealth of melodic and dramatic invention. Too often neglected, Schubert’s stage works present a rare treasury of melody and invention, finally revealed by these affectionate and conscientious realizations by conductor Michi Gaigg and tenor Daniel Gaigg, recorded June 2016. Hearing the popular 1822 Overture to The Magic Harp in “original” instruments came as a bracing shock, but the crisp articulation of instrumental entries and incisive rhythms adds an immediacy to Schubert’s singspiel, that had begun to gain independence from French and Italian models.   Following the admonition of theater director Ignaz von Mosel, Schubert meant to convey “heightened declamation and powerful, vital, warm expression of emotions,” often bearing a (surprisingly brief) Masonic or humanist message. Schubert’s means of expression proves striking in its directness: he eschews Rossini’s penchant for canto fiorito, color writing that features trills and artificial ornaments.  Schubert’s tenor arias usually address love as ideal or thwarted, and the timbre of an oboe or clarinet intensifies the lover’s quandary between […]

BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 3, Prometheus and Consecration of the House Overtures – Orch.of the Southwest German Radio/ Vienna Symph. Orch. / Jascha Horenstein – Pristine Audio

BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 3, Prometheus and Consecration of the House Overtures – Orch.of the Southwest German Radio/ Vienna Symph. Orch. / Jascha Horenstein – Pristine Audio

by | Jun 27, 2017 | Classical Reissue Reviews, SACD & Other Hi-Res Reviews

BEETHOVEN: The Creatures of Prometheus – Overture, Op. 43; Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 55 “Eroica”; Overture to the Consecration of the House, Op. 124 – Orchestra of the Southwest German Radio/ Vienna Symphony Orchestra (overtures)/ Jascha Horenstein – Pristine Audio PASC 505, 66:20   [ww.pristineclassical.com] ****:  Andrew Rose and Pristine Audio extend the Jachsa Horenstein Beethoven legacy with three significant additions. Pristine Audio continues to issue, with the support of Mischa Horenstein and the commitment of audio engineer and producer Andrew Rose, the legacy of Jascha Horenstein (1898-1973) to everyone’s benefit. This release of the May 1957 Vox label Eroica only instills in us a retroactive desire that record companies had committed themselves to preserving a full set of the Beethoven symphonies from Jascha Horenstein for posterity’s benefit. The program opens with Horenstein’s leading a 1953 performance with the Vienna Symphony – from an elusive Vox disc – of Beethoven’s 1801 Overture to the Creatures of Prometheus.  Horenstein might well be preparing a rendition for the Fourth Symphony, given the gravitas he elicits from the slow, introductory (dissonant) passages that will soon erupt into the boisterous muscular Allegro that celebrates the Greek Titan’s love and sponsorship of […]

Gino Marinuzzi = ROSSINI: Il Barbiere di Siviglia Overture; La Gazza ladra Overture; L’Assedio di Corinto Overture; BELLINI: Norma Overture; VERDI: I Vespri sciliani Overture; PUCCINI: Manon Lescaut: Intermezzo, Act 3; MASCAGNI: Cavalleria rusticana: Intermezzo; Le Maschere Overture; GIORDANO: Siberia – La Pasqua; PIZZETTI: Fedra; WOLF-FERRARI: Il Campiello: Ritornello Act 3; MARINUZZI: Musiche per I trionfi Sforza & Savoia – Rito Nuziale – Orch. del Teatro alla Scala, Milano/ Gino Marinuzzi – Preiser Records

Gino Marinuzzi = ROSSINI: Il Barbiere di Siviglia Overture; La Gazza ladra Overture; L’Assedio di Corinto Overture; BELLINI: Norma Overture; VERDI: I Vespri sciliani Overture; PUCCINI: Manon Lescaut: Intermezzo, Act 3; MASCAGNI: Cavalleria rusticana: Intermezzo; Le Maschere Overture; GIORDANO: Siberia – La Pasqua; PIZZETTI: Fedra; WOLF-FERRARI: Il Campiello: Ritornello Act 3; MARINUZZI: Musiche per I trionfi Sforza & Savoia – Rito Nuziale – Orch. del Teatro alla Scala, Milano/ Gino Marinuzzi – Preiser Records

by | May 8, 2013 | Classical Reissue Reviews

A conductor-composer of potent abilities, Gino Marinuzzi traverses a series of opera overtures and excerpts that demands a second look at an under-rated talent.

Editorial for May 2013

Editorial for May 2013

by | May 1, 2013 | Editorial

Beethoven couldn’t totally escape Mozart’s influence on especially his earlier works. All of his Symphonies (including the Ode to Joy of the Ninth—which has become the anthem for Europe), plus the inventive Piano Concertos and his Overtures are found in the 12-CD box set from Naxos which we are awarding to five lucky AUDIOPHILE AUDITION readers who register this month on our simple form and fill out all fields. The total time for the set is nearly 14 hours! The five winners will be announced here in early June. Here are the three winners of the 14-CD Opera d’Oro set of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, our April drawing. Congratulations!:  Sara Alvaro, NYC; William Fialko, Horn Lake MS & Lucy Petitto, Mechanicville NY. [audaud-hr]  EDITORIAL AUDIOPHILE AUDITION began in 1985 as a weekly national radio series hosted by John Sunier, which aired for 13 1/2 years on up to 200 public radio and commercial stations coast to coast. In September 1998 its web site for programming information was expanded to the present Internet publication. May 2013 is our 170th issue. All disc reviews (well over 100) are added thru the month as they are written and received, usually daily. The most recent reviews appear at the top of each Section Index. The Home Page […]