Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Pardubice Halasz - Overtures 7 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The second volume in this series (Volume1is on 8.574005) continues to explore little-known examples of Auber's elegant and refined operatic music. Julie was his first stage work, it's fantasia-like beauty foreshadowing the operas, opéras-comiques and lyric dramas to come. Striking melodies and haunting episodes abound in these overtures and entr'actes, and there is restrained yet fragrant Iberian color in the overture to Léocadie. The Violin Concerto is lightly scored and gentle, with a tarantella-like finale full of folk vitality.

Paul Wranitzky moved to Vienna from his native Moravia at the age of 20, mixing with the likes of Haydn and Mozart. As the most important symphonist in Vienna in the late 1790s, his style influenced the early symphonies of Beethoven. The Symphony in D major 'La Chasse' reflects the popularity of hunting music, and is heard here for the first time in it's expanded version. The overtures to Mitgefühl and Die gute Mutter represent Wranitzky's skill as a composer for the theatre, as does the masterfully scored Symphony in C major in which the composer repurposes some incidental and ballet music.

Described as having 'natural genius', John Abraham Fisher was a significant figure in London during the second half of the 18th century. A virtuoso violinist, he also wrote admired stage works for the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. His orchestral works are largely forgotten today, but his symphonies display a surprising awareness of contemporary continental trends in their use of dynamic variations, revealing the influence of the Mannheim School. Possessing a richness of color, contrast and surprise, these symphonies typify Fisher's expanding Classical style. About Michael Halász, ConductorMichael Halász's recordings for Naxos include ballets by Tchaikovsky, operatic excerpts of Wagner, symphonies by Beethoven, Schubert and Mahler, Rossini's overtures, three volumes of Liszt's symphonic poems (the latter critically acclaimed by The Penguin Guide), Fidelio, Don Giovanni, Le nozze di Figaro, Die Zauberflöte, and a pioneering recording of Schreker's opera Der ferne Klang. He has also recorded Pergolesi's Stabat Mater and Orfeo, Richard Strauss's Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, and Rubinstein's Don Quixote.