800 Sinfonico Italiano
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Giacomo Puccini, Alfredo Catalani, Amilcare Ponchielli
Label: Classical
Magazine Review Date: 9/1998
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 54
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: SK63025
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
(10) Impressioni, Movement: Scherzo |
Alfredo Catalani, Composer
Alfredo Catalani, Composer Milan La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra Riccardo Muti, Conductor, Bass |
Contemplazione |
Alfredo Catalani, Composer
Alfredo Catalani, Composer Milan La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra Riccardo Muti, Conductor, Bass |
Elegia, 'Sulla tomba di Garibaldi' |
Amilcare Ponchielli, Composer
Amilcare Ponchielli, Composer Milan La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra Riccardo Muti, Conductor, Bass |
Preludio sinfonico |
Giacomo Puccini, Composer
Giacomo Puccini, Composer Milan La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra Riccardo Muti, Conductor, Bass |
Capriccio sinfonico |
Giacomo Puccini, Composer
Giacomo Puccini, Composer Milan La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra Riccardo Muti, Conductor, Bass |
(Le) Villi, Movement: La Tregenda |
Giacomo Puccini, Composer
Giacomo Puccini, Composer Milan La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra Riccardo Muti, Conductor, Bass |
Author: Edward Greenfield
It makes an apt, if rather ungenerous, coupling having the long-buried pieces by Ponchielli (Puccini’s teacher) and Catalani (his contemporary from the same city, Lucca) alongside the three most impressive examples of Puccini’s early orchestral writing. Like Puccini’s Preludio and Capriccio the works by Ponchielli and Catalani have been resurrected by the Italian musicologist, Pietro Spada, and similarly offer easily lyrical invention from composers who, like Puccini, were concentrating on opera.
The Ponchielli Elegia sustains its length well up to passionate climaxes, rather like film music. The two Catalani items were both arranged from piano pieces, the Scherzo a charming dance, Contemplazione much more ambitious, leading to a tender and hushed reprise of the opening theme (track 3, 8'32''). The orchestration was evidently made for the Scala orchestra’s appearance at the Paris Exhibition of 1878.
Welcome as those compositions are, it is striking that the Puccini pieces are markedly more memorable, above all in their melodic writing. That is immediately apparent in the free-flowing Preludio sinfonico, and “La tregenda” (“Witches’ Sabbath”), the dance interlude from Puccini’s first opera, Le villi, is the most brilliant of his early inspirations.
The Capriccio sinfonico, the longest piece here, was written as a graduation exercise, very well orchestrated, with structure well controlled. A moment of revelation comes when the Allegro opens on the theme which Puccini later used for the opening of La boheme. Muti brings out the emotional warmth in all these works, though in the Puccini items Muti has a formidable rival in Chailly’s Decca versions with the Berlin Radio Orchestra, more vividly recorded. The Sony sound here is warm but not ideally detailed.'
The Ponchielli Elegia sustains its length well up to passionate climaxes, rather like film music. The two Catalani items were both arranged from piano pieces, the Scherzo a charming dance, Contemplazione much more ambitious, leading to a tender and hushed reprise of the opening theme (track 3, 8'32''). The orchestration was evidently made for the Scala orchestra’s appearance at the Paris Exhibition of 1878.
Welcome as those compositions are, it is striking that the Puccini pieces are markedly more memorable, above all in their melodic writing. That is immediately apparent in the free-flowing Preludio sinfonico, and “La tregenda” (“Witches’ Sabbath”), the dance interlude from Puccini’s first opera, Le villi, is the most brilliant of his early inspirations.
The Capriccio sinfonico, the longest piece here, was written as a graduation exercise, very well orchestrated, with structure well controlled. A moment of revelation comes when the Allegro opens on the theme which Puccini later used for the opening of La boheme. Muti brings out the emotional warmth in all these works, though in the Puccini items Muti has a formidable rival in Chailly’s Decca versions with the Berlin Radio Orchestra, more vividly recorded. The Sony sound here is warm but not ideally detailed.'
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