February 17, 2016

  • Some Basson Rarities & Italian Music

     

    Italian Orchestral Works (Puccini, Rossini, Verdi, Paganini, Resphigi)
    Patrick De Ritis, bassoon.  Jose Vicente Castello, horn.
    Wurzburg Philharmonic Orchestra/Enrico Calesso
    Naxos 8.573382
    Total Time:  75:17
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

     

    Conductor Enrico Calesso has spent much of his career in and around Vienna working with the Vienna Symphony and Vienna Radio Symphony.  He also was the Music Director at the Theater Erfurt having made a recording of Mafred Gurlitt’s opera Nana a few years ago.  He has worked with the Wurzburg Philharmonic Orchestra for the past five years, becoming their Music Director in 2011.  Though many will be unfamiliar with the ensemble, its roots go back to a court orchestra in the 17th Century!

    The program here is taken from a live concert on December 11, 2014, and yes applause at the end of pieces does occur, but otherwise audience noise is not too intrusive.  It features a couple of works for bassoon and one for bassoon and orchestra serving as a centerpiece between works for orchestra.  The bassoon pieces are rather unique in that one does not think of Rossini or Verdi as composer’s of concerti or solo works of this type.  Rossini’s Bassoon Concerto is attributed only due to its appearance in the obituary for the bassoonist Nazzareno Gatti who claimed it was written for him.  A later discovery of the manuscript still left the credit to Rossini and it is believed that he wrote the piece for Gatti’s examination at the Liceo.  The brief three-movement work has much of wit and charm of Rossini (like the building crescendo of the opening movement) with some hints at Mozartian style, especially in the slow movement.  It is in the final rondo where the technique is challenged the most.  As with the Rossini, so it is with the Verdi that we have a work that is unusual and was thought lost up until only 20 years ago.  It is suspected that the piece was written around 1838 for an amateur orchestra.  The Capriccio is essentially a set of variations framed with an introduction and coda.  It might also seem odd to find a solo work for an instrument other than violin by Niccolo Paganini (1782-1840), but that is what we have here in the Concertino for Horn and Bassoon.  The two-movement work was composed around 1831, though it is unclear if it was ever performed.  It was not published until 1985 (!).  Written for the great French bassoonist Antoine Nicholas Henry, we are in the realm of some of the more expressive qualities of the instrument.  The horn also is given some interesting commentary in this unusual work.  Patrick De Ritis performs these works well with great tone and technical skill.  Castello’s work in the Paganini is also well done and balances with the ensemble.

    Two orchestral works frame these solo pieces.  The first is equally rare in its being a piece of purely orchestral music by opera composer Giacomo Puccini.  The 1882 Preludio Sinfonico shows the composer’s own Wagnerian influences, but also the beginning of his ability of romantic dramatic writing.  One can almost sense the shift from Wagner to Puccini’s own style as this piece moves along, especially as it is shaped in spots here.  The final work is a delightful arrangement by the conductor Malcolm Sargent that takes away some of the connective tissue between the ballet movements of Resphigi’s delightful La Boutique Fantasque—itself filled with Rossini melodies.  The performance here is also a good one filled with wonderful touches and lovingly performed, though the final “Galop” seems a bit slow.

    This is a good recording of a live performance showcasing an orchestra at its best.  The Wurzburg players are on fine display throughout these works providing great accompaniment to the bassoon works and getting a chance to shine more interpretively in the Resphigi and Puccini pieces.  This will prove a delightful discovery for those who fall across this album.