Dave, your presentation is worth the music you're talking about. Let me wish you and all this channel's audience a wonderful 2022!
@DavesClassicalGuide
2 жыл бұрын
Thank you. Best to you too!
@richardallen3810
2 жыл бұрын
I’ve loved Rossini since I discovered him at 13 yrs. I was obsessed with Barber and it was my first opera I bought and saw live. I played the Giulini on Angel vinyl to death. I remember where I was the first time I heard each of his overtures. He was a genius for sure as well as a gourmand and trend setter at an early age .
@davidbo8400
2 жыл бұрын
Oh my, what a great classical music advocate you are! Rossini's Overtures will definitely be part of our NY's Eve playlist, for sure! I suspected Rossini might get another mention before the year was over ("jamaiz deux sans trois", as the French speaking tribes often say) and there it is bang on the gong, bam on the tam-tam. You opened our ears and our minds to so much more great repertoire than we'd cared to notice was out there. I'm sure most of us must have experienced something along those lines to some degree, at least, thanks to your talks. Whatever the case may be, you've made me pay much more attention to some of those works (whether familiar, unfamiliar or completely unknown) and the rewards keep on giving. Thank you and see you in 20 22.
@Mooseman327
Ай бұрын
Dave is spot on here. Rossini may be the most underrated of all the great classical music composers. I first became aware of Rossini's true place by reading Thomas Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow" when it came out in the 1970's. In it, two characters argue over who is the greater composer, Rossini or Beethoven. I must admit that, in the book, Rossini wins the argument. But it made me go back to Rossini to give him a better listen. Glad I did.
@donmigueldecuenca
2 жыл бұрын
Rossini is my desert island composer, and I've been told that I'm "shallow" for that reason. Lol...poor me. My first album of Rossini overtures was Reiner with the Chicago Symphony way back in the early 60s. Reiner certainly isn't thought of as a Rossini conductor, and admittedly these performances are BIG and maybe old-fashioned -- and very exciting! No other composer makes me smile like Rossini, none even come close.
@xxsaruman82xx87
2 жыл бұрын
Fantastic video Dave! Another one that’s on my list of recommendations is Piero Gamba and the London Symphony Orchestra on Decca :)
@chlee3831
2 жыл бұрын
The 1960 stereo Gamba LSO is also my top pick for Rossini Overtures. Gamba did an earlier mono set in 1957, but these were inferior to the ones he recorded in 1960.
@b1i2l336
2 жыл бұрын
Wonderful choices, as always, Mr. H. One of my very favorite albums of these gems is Tullio Serafin's with the Rome Opera Orchestra on a long forgotten disc. He is so marvelously songful, and conducts with a smile in his baton. Yes, one can say that this orchestra is not on the same level as some of the world's greatest. but they play as if they love every note. Serafin was responsible for the revival of interest in Rossini's operatic works, and of course he was one of the supreme Opera maestri of all time.
@2leftfield
2 ай бұрын
Seconded. Serafin with the Rome Opera Orchestra is a beautiful disk of these overtures.
@maximisaev6974
2 жыл бұрын
Dave: Thanks for turning me on to the NAXOS/Benda/Prague set of complete Rossini overtures. They don't punch you in the gut with the force of Reiner and the CSO, but they're all the more alert, alive, and dare I say musical, of any set I've heard in the last few decades. Maybe its the use of smaller forces that compels you to really listen to the music, instead of just the standard big band climaxes we're all accustomed to. I'm stunned by the quality of the recording, the conducting, and the champagne like freshness of all four of these CD's. This is literally the first time in 50 years I've listened to La Gazza Ladra, because thanks to Stanley Kubrick, I have a low level musical PTSD whenever I hear it. But today all I hear is the music, sweet, glorious, rhythmically alive music! Thank you for the interpretive recommendation, but more than that, thank you for passionately advocating just what a truly first class composer Rossini was.
@DavesClassicalGuide
2 жыл бұрын
Thank YOU for listening and reporting back to us!
@TdF_101
2 жыл бұрын
Thank you for the review and wonderful presentation. Rossini was indeed a great orchestral composer and orchestrator, always worth studying him. And also ... a great composer for the piano. The Sins of Old Age pieces are some of the best ever written.
@chutton988
2 жыл бұрын
I agree with your comment regarding Rossini’s orchestration. I still need to listen to the piano works. I’m happy to see your Webern Variations picture.
@TdF_101
2 жыл бұрын
@@chutton988 I interviewed Marangoni who has recorded the Sins of Old Age for Naxos, and was lucky enough to see some Rossini manuscripts. Incredible stuff on a technical level but also his mastery of genres/forms and the humor and wit is just so modern.
@nobodyaskedbut
25 күн бұрын
Rossini was the first great modern entertainer. He understood the evolving audience in the same way Tchaikovsky later also did. They remain in my mind the 2 most entertaining of the pre-20th century masters.
@mfa192654
Жыл бұрын
GREAT presentation!!! I can't tell you how much I appreciate your appreciation for Rosini and many of the other Italian composers of the 19th & early 20th centuries, as well as the fact that just because a composer was writing for the "populace" does NOT make this composer less of an important or inferior composer.
@poturbg8698
2 жыл бұрын
I'd add the Mariotti selection on Pentatone to the list. Zippy, fun performances, great playing and sound.
@grahamcombs4752
4 ай бұрын
I've been agonizing over the Naxos/Rossini box set but you've sold me. Thank you so much. My introduction to Rossini was A Clockwork Orange. I'm grateful overall to the Stanley Kubrick for his drop-needle soundtracks. I worked at Borders Books and Music for many years and was an admirer of the Naxos business model. Of course the iPod devastated our music department. Not a big fan of streaming zeros and ones, bits and bytes. Again my gratitude to your Ultimate Classical Music Guide.
@gideonels
2 жыл бұрын
Thank you David for an amazing end to this year. I am so glad to see that someone else also LOVES Rossini's Overtures!
@gregdecker3518
2 жыл бұрын
David, thanks so much for this series. Loving it all, and enjoy your insight and humor. Have been learning a lot about classical music, through your ears !
@OctavinaPlayer
2 жыл бұрын
Happy New Year David! Great discussion, learned about Rossini's writing style. Can you also talk about Verdi's ballet music in his operas? There's a recording with Jose Serebrier (I think) on Naxos.
@s28101
2 жыл бұрын
Search, and you will find 😉 Serebrier is a great choice
@carlconnor5173
2 жыл бұрын
I wonder how Rossini would feel about his music being introduced to some of us through the Lone Ranger TV show, and that hilarious episode of Bugs Bunny giving Elmer Fudd a haircut? Somehow I think it would give him some measure of satisfaction. I don’t think he’d appreciate it used in that horrid sene in A Clockwork Orange. That was almost sacrilegious.
@DiegoGonzalez-nv9qv
2 жыл бұрын
Happy New Year David- I also liked a record of early Rossini sinfonias with Alun Francis and the Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano because of the unusual collection of overtures.
@s28101
2 жыл бұрын
Another wonderfull talk, thank you David Hurwitz. And sincere thanks for a great 2021. Heartwork.❤ Best wishes to You
@steveschwartz8944
2 жыл бұрын
George Szell and the Cleveland get no love? Heartily agree with your other choices and with your assessment of Rossini. Rossini reminds me a bit of Martinů in just the animal spirits of his music and the originality of his language. He always surprises me. Rossini has suffered in the general undervaluing of Italian opera in the wake of Wagner and Strauss. Until the Sixties, Verdi, Donezetti, and Bellini were patronized as "melody men," as if writing a great tune were a cheap trick. Also, humor in music (or most arts) gets looked down on because it's not serious, which is a rather limited way to regard humor. I think its harder to be funny than profound. You can always claim profundity. Who's to argue with you? However, try telling a bad joke. In most cases, it's immediately apparent.
@DavesClassicalGuide
2 жыл бұрын
Szell didn't do enough.
@donaldjones5386
2 жыл бұрын
Rossini was a comic genius, but have you ever sat thru "Semiramide" ? Or' Tancredi"?(Serious pieces). Even with Ewa Podles, the latter was dull. But every one of his comedies I've attended has been a joy. The best: "L'Italiana in Algeri". Marilyn Horne sang in it at the Met. Sills in City Opera's "Turk in Italy" uttered the memorable line: "Who ever heard of a Turk in Italy?" The overtures are wonderful. You can have Donizetti and Bellini, though! Melody, schmelody. It's Oom, pah, pah music!
@steveschwartz8944
2 жыл бұрын
@@donaldjones5386 I haven't sat through most bel canto operas, since I dislike the style, although Donizetti"s Fille du Regiment delights me. Mouse also keeps my interest. Oddly, for all the times I've heard the William Tell Overture, I don't know Guillaume Tell at all.
@steveschwartz8944
2 жыл бұрын
Sorry. The curse of autocorrect. It should be Moïse, not Mouse.
@stradivariouspaul1232
2 жыл бұрын
Thanks David Hurwitz I've had the abbado disc for a long time, but had no idea Rossini wrote so many other overtures. To me Abbado seems to have picked out the best, but that doesn't mean there aren't lots of others worth exploring, Ithat Naxos boxed set is calling me!
@MDK2_Radio
2 жыл бұрын
Thanks for the videos David. May your 2022 be the best year yet for your channel and yourself.
@WoutDC
2 жыл бұрын
Haven't heard most of these works yet, so thanks for introducing them to me! Will get the Abbado DG CD and the Naxos set :)
@sclugstone
2 жыл бұрын
Thanks so much for your wonderful analysis, helping me love the overtures even more !
@tomross5347
2 жыл бұрын
Maybe form was for Rossini what plot is for the author of a stage comedy -- something to be noticed and enjoyed for its own sake. We recognize the ingenious contrivances that make things happen at just the right time in "The Front Page", but that only adds to the fun. I suspect Rossini wanted us to recognize how ingeniously he puts it all together.
@curseofmillhaven1057
2 жыл бұрын
At the risk of incurring the ire of DH, at summoning up the force of darkness that is Sir Roger Norrington, I find his Rossini overtures set on EMI (Warner) one of his better efforts (in fact for me this together with his Beethoven 2 & 8 also on EMI represents a time when he really got his shit together, rather than just being....well...shit). They are witty, lithe performances lacking that po-faced uninflected period performance attitude so prevalent in many of his recodings. Happy New Year one and all!
@adrianoseresi3525
2 жыл бұрын
Thank God! I’ve been waiting for this talk ever since the talk on the Petite Messe Solennelle was posted.
@tonywatts6699
2 жыл бұрын
Thank you David. How wonderful to hear someone talk who appreciates the genius of Rossini rather than dismissing him as a formulaic hack rather than as an equal of Haydn and Mozart. Being a European I have been lucky enough to attend the Rossini Festival in Pesaro many times over the last twenty years and what a joy it is to hear his music in his own home town.I think William Tell demonstrates his genius as an opera composer and it's hard to think of a piece more guaranteed to raise the spirits more than Cenerentola. Thanks again.
@MLV_memories
2 жыл бұрын
The Toscanini Rossini Overtures was the first classical record I ever bought. I was 10 years old. I knew nothing about classical music, didn't even like it (or so I thought.) I bought it because I wanted the Lone Ranger music! It was my later fascination with the Semiramide overture that started me on my classical journey. It was a 2-record set containing 2 overtures! William Tell on one record and Semiramide on the other. They were 45 RPM records! Yes Virginia, there really were classical 45s!
@MarauderOSU
2 жыл бұрын
Happy New Year, Dave. I look forward to many more videos and reviews in 2022.
@pedromoyaguzman7517
2 жыл бұрын
Great video! My dad gave me som years ago the Marriner one 🙌 I love the recording of Barbiere in that album
@maxwellkrem2779
2 жыл бұрын
Wonderful presentation to cap off 2021! Great "exposition" on the structures. My vote for honorable mention goes to Szell/Cleveland. Have Columbia LP with La Gazza Ladra, La Scala di Seta, Il Viaggio a Reims, L'Italiana, and Il Turco. Incredible precision and occasionally insane tempi (but they work)! I don't think any other orchestra could handle the conclusion of La Gazza the way Szell plays it.
@darkryder5242
2 жыл бұрын
Totally agree! "Il Viaggio" especially fine and funny.
@issadad
2 жыл бұрын
Lord love a duck, David -- when do you sleep? One definition of genius, they say, is extraordinary energy and accomplishment. You certainly clear that bar. Thanks yet again.
@hhk01
2 жыл бұрын
Wonderful vid, great selections! Aside from a limp and stodgy La Scala di Seta I love Szell/Cleveland. L'taliana in Algeri, Il Turco in Italia, and especially La Gazza Ladra are fabulous. Also a terrific the Auber Fra Diavolo and Berlioz Carnaval Romain. The thing is that it was only on an SACD, so limited for some.
@bbailey7818
2 жыл бұрын
But the Szell disc does also has a bogus overture that Rossini never wrote. Il Viaggio a Reims is a hodgepodge assembled by other hands from various ballet movements. It may be fun but it's not an overture Rossini ever heard of.
@jwinder2
2 жыл бұрын
@@bbailey7818 Just for clarification, it was assembled from various ballet movements by Rossini himself. The actual opera was an occasional piece written for the coronation of Charles X, and may or may not have had an overture. The Manuscript that has shown up so far hasn't included one. Also, this recording is available outside of the SACD; it is part of the complete Szell/Cleveland box, and most of the individual pieces were available in various combinations on previous cd's.
@bbailey7818
2 жыл бұрын
@@jwinder2 This overture has no place in the Ricordi critical edition of "Il Viaggio" (which I have) and the preface to it states, "The source of the widely recorded Gran Sinfonia...is a forgery whose only claim to fame is it inclusion of the most memorable airs de danse in the Finale...the "Gran Sinfonia was probably derived from Siege de Corinthe long after the composition of Il viaggio a Reims." There is no evidence that Rossini had anything to do with it.
@jwinder2
2 жыл бұрын
@@bbailey7818 Yes, it wasn't actually conceived as an overture to Il Viaggio, and yes, it was put together by other hands at a later date. My point is that the material it was put together from was written by Rossini, who wrote Siege de Corinthe the year after he wrote Il Viaggio. This isn't a claim to viability, just a clarification.
@judsonmusick3177
2 жыл бұрын
Bravo Dave! And Happy New Year!
@scagooch
2 жыл бұрын
Always on the look out for Rossini overtures. Once had a cd in my car. Stopped for gas. Hummed la scala while pumping gas.
@johnpalmer7636
2 жыл бұрын
A very accurate and concise review of the subject, as usual. My first Rossini overture record was of Semiramide by Beecham and Philadelphia from 1952 on a 10” Columbia LP which I bought a couple of years after it was issued. It’s still the best in my opinion, with the matchless Philadelphia winds of the day and the ebullient Beecham. I have most of the recordings discussed and completely agree with your assessment of relative virtues.
@kinggeorge7696
Жыл бұрын
Rossini's overtures are a lot of fun. Toscanini is my choice. Yeah, I know - I probably overlook a lot of modern, better souding recordings, but what can I say, I have a thing for old records. And the performances are great.
@LePhil79
2 жыл бұрын
I love Tullio Serafin recording ( DGG. 1964 ), but I never saw it in cd.
@edwardtodd9734
2 жыл бұрын
Since watching this, the KZitem algorithm has been offering me Rossini overtures including some uncommon ones such as Otello. Thanks
@davidbo8400
2 жыл бұрын
The YT algorithms' purpose is to get you stuck in a perpetual loop by feeding you with more stuff that you like than you can process. Black hole principle. However, it doesn't warn you or inform you when one of your subscriptions has been censored or removed from the site. They do this discreetly and silently, like the good ole' Stasi. We should call it The Pleasure-Distraction, Selective Amnesia Inducing Archipelago. Use YT with caution!
@stefanoruggeri100
2 жыл бұрын
Not only a great video but also a great Italian prononciation !
@dmntuba
2 жыл бұрын
Rossini puts the motion in the ocean. If the Opera house is a rocking don't come a knockin 🤣 This has made a delightful and enjoyable New Year's eve 😁
@allanpowell7208
2 жыл бұрын
Happy New Year Dave (and get on to that The Magic Flute comparison asap or I will pray to the stereo gods to fry your power amps) Many cheers and kind regs, Allan.
@DavesClassicalGuide
2 жыл бұрын
I don't like the opera, so don't hold your breath!
@joosroets5533
2 жыл бұрын
Thank you for these informative recommendations! Little suggestion: a Niels Gade (symphonies) video, and a Schütz one? :)
@bobmcgowan7460
10 ай бұрын
Dave your remark about Abbado's second set and its use of scholarly editions of the scores. Isn't that what Norrington's set is said to have done too?
@henryfate7170
2 жыл бұрын
Hi Ho Silver, Toscanini always the best. Who was that masked man David?
@aaronfsmall
Жыл бұрын
Dave, wondering what your thoughts are on the 10 overture set by Riccardo Chailly and the Orchestra Filarmonica Della Scala on Decca from 1996?
@frankbyrne1488
2 жыл бұрын
Another vote for Piero Gamba and the LSO. Marvelous!
@DavesClassicalGuide
2 жыл бұрын
Go find it.
@frankbyrne1488
2 жыл бұрын
@@DavesClassicalGuide PS this would make a superb Eloquence reissue.
@chadweirick67
2 жыл бұрын
Just curious are these all act one overtures? Does the second and or third act also have an overture are those as well known do they follow the same formula?
@DavesClassicalGuide
2 жыл бұрын
Yes. They are all for the start of the opera. In fact, they are for the start of any opera as often as not, and not "the" opera. They are independent works.
@piano2750
9 ай бұрын
Hi, Dave! Your opinions are always worthy of respect, indeed I agree with nearly all....BUT I really don't think you can rate the Benda that highly: complete it may be, but his orchestra sounds small and underpowered......thmpi are also, at times, unexciting: just listen to his William Tell and THEN listen to Marriner and hear which is the greater performance: for me Marriner even surpasses Toscanini in this and I don't say that lightly.....
@DavesClassicalGuide
9 ай бұрын
Fair enough!
@steveeliscu1254
2 жыл бұрын
Interesting your use of "motion music" to describe what is usually called transition or bridge. Hmmm....
@DavesClassicalGuide
2 жыл бұрын
It's a more accurate description of the music's purpose and, more importantly (at least in quick movements) sound and texture.
@detectivehome3318
2 жыл бұрын
Hi Dave What is your opinion on Bernstein's set of Rossini Overtures
@dr2549
2 жыл бұрын
Curiously, Karajan on Decca did some fine job in this too. It seems there is a fruitfull contrasting interaction between the jolly Rossini and those tough, humorless guys like Reiner, Toscaninni and Herr K.
@hendriphile
4 ай бұрын
I like his c. 1961 recording with the Philharmonia on EMI/Angel. The recorded sound is more natural sounding than his later BPO/DG, and you get a real sense of being in the theater, waiting for the curtain to rise.
@kirkpatticalma7911
2 жыл бұрын
You can have all your soundracks -searching- for- a- movie, I'll have Rossini, with actual melodies and loads of fun.
@bbailey7818
2 жыл бұрын
A great topic for today and the new year! Rossini could be tremendously innovative; at least two of his overtures feature a chorus behind the scenes an effect later imitated by Donizetti and Meyerbeer but invented by Rossini. The four mvt form of Tell is also his own creation. My favorite Rossini overture is the tremendous Semiramide and, just as you pointed out the 1936 Beethoven 7th of Toscanini and the NYP, I'd recommend the jaw dropping drive and power of his 1936 Semiramide Overture, yet with a flexibility and subtle rubato not matched by the (admittedly better sounding) 1951 recording. I'm also very fond of Beecham's stereo Cambiale di Matrimonio, lovingly shaped and played. But NOT his Gazza Ladra which, while piquant, is played from a corrupt score (actually printed in a Dover collection) which puts it in the same category as that other charming composer Handelbeecham.
@dennischiapello7243
2 жыл бұрын
I see there's more than one album of which the cover art consists of apples! Why, what could that be a sly reference to? :*)
@DavesClassicalGuide
2 жыл бұрын
OK, originality is not their strong suit.
@barryguerrero7652
2 жыл бұрын
I'm the odd man out. I played most of the Rossini overtures sooooo many times in high school, and in the San Jose Municipal Band, that I'm done with them. I frankly enjoy the von Weber and von Suppe overtures more. That's just me.
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