Search - Gioachino Rossini, Ottorino Respighi, Gianluigi Gelmetti :: Rossini: Overtures, La Boutique fantasque - Sir Malcolm Sargent, Sir Thomas Beecham, Thomas Shippers, Vittorio Gui, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Tullio Serafin, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Sir Eugene Goossens

5 stars for Beecham's 3 Rossini Overtures; everything else

Alan Majeska | Bad Axe, MI, USA | 04/21/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Sir Thomas Beecham and the Royal Philharmonic beat all the other conductors and orchestras in this collection. I would buy this for the Beecham tracks alone: the overtures to "La Cambiale di Matrimonio", "La Gazza Ladra" and "Semiramide." Beecham and the Royal Philharmonic had a special magic that puts so many other orchestras and conductors recording Rossini Overtures in the shade.



Other suggestions? Neville Marriner/Academy of St. Martin in the Fields for the (almost) complete Rossini Overtures (Philips, 3 CD set);

Bernstein/New York Philharmonic (Sony Royal edition, which may be hard to find in 2007, nearly 15 years after it's initial release); Reiner/Chicago Symphony (RCA). If you can handle 1930s mono sound, there are collections on Dutton and Pearl of Beecham/London Philharmonic in Overtures to "William Tell", "La Scala di Seta", "Semiramide," and "La Gazza Ladra" - the last two markedly different than the stereo recordings found here.



If you are a Beecham fan, and feel you can afford to buy a 2 disc set for three tracks, or if you aren't that fussy about breakneck fast tempos in the non-Beecham items, buy this. If not, don't."