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5.0étoiles sur 5
Worthy music, Déc 5 2005
It is unfortunate that Antonio Salieri (1750 - 1825) is known now almost exclusively for being the nemesis of Mozart in the Peter Schaffer play and subsequent film 'Amadeus'. Salieri was certainly much more than the thwarted, second-rate composer. Perhaps he was not in Mozart's league so far as composition power goes (although the best of Salieri certainly stands up as worthy in comparison with many of the major composers of his time), but he was a respected composer in his own time, and perhaps more than for his composition, he was respected as a teacher and court musician. Salieri counts among his pupils Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt and even Mozart's second son. His operas tended to follow a particularly popular formula, with dramatic flairs and stories easily accessible to the people. He drew inspiration from historical works, from mythological and fictional works, as well as works of popular circulation. Salieri even used some libretti from Lorenzo de Ponte, perhaps better known now as a librettist for Mozart. This disc includes overtures of twelve operas (Salieri wrote nearly 50 operas, several of which were not premiered until the 1990s). They include pieces from his dramatic operas as well as his comic operas. The power in these is certainly evident. Perhaps the best of the lot is 'Cesare in Farmacusa (Tempesta di Mare)' and 'Axur, Re d'Ormus', an opera also involving de Ponte, and reworked from an earlier attempt to do a French opera into an Italian one. It is a mistake (reinforced by 'Amadeus') to classify Salieri as an Italian composer - he lived most of his life in Vienna, and was criticised by the Empress at one point for being too much of a German composer. Salieri's works such as 'Don Chisciotte alle nozze di Gamace', the overture of which is included here, certainly shows his strength in writing toward the German. This disc is a fun disc to listen to. There is nothing earth-shattering or new here, but these pieces are good compositions, and the performances by the Czecho-Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra (Bratislava), under the direction of Michael Dittrich, is exemplary. This is one of those often-overlooked Eastern European orchestras that has incredible performance ability; they have had international touring experience as well as a number of recordings for Naxos, who is to be praised for bringing less popular music to the general public in an affordable way.
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5.0étoiles sur 5
Helping to bring Salieri out of the shade, Avril 29 2002
Par Un client
I have read with interest the preceding reviews of this CD, and they seem to alternate between declaring Salieri an unacknowledged genius and totally worthless! (The Gramophone review, by the way, fell more into the latter category.) The truth lies somewhere in between. He is certainly no Mozart, but nonetheless he did write some very beautiful music which is surely worth hearing.Like a previous reviwer, I was particularly impressed by "Cesare in Farmacusa" (1800), an overture in the "tempesta di mare" ("storm at sea") style, which has an incision and power that look ahead to Beethoven's thunderstorm music from the "Pastoral", and by "Ricco d'un giorno" (1784), a spirited and lively piece which is probably the most "Mozartian" item on the disc. There are some interesting moments in the other pieces, including "Les Danaides" (1784), which resonates with Gluck and even seems to look ahead to the Commendatore music in Mozart's "Don Giovanni". Worthy of note as well is the festive overture to "L'Angiolina" (1800), which is a setting of Ben Jonson's "The Silent Woman", which incidentally also inspired Donizetti's "Don Pasquale" and Strauss' "Die Schweigsame Frau". All in all, a very nice disc which helps to bring Salieri out of the shade and is certainly worth exploring for anyone interested in the music of the late Classical and early Romantic periods. ...
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4.0étoiles sur 5
For the price, a good CD, but..., Juil 13 2000
If you haven't glutted yourself on late 18th-century Austrian music like myself, I think you'll find Salieri's overtures very entertaining. Two of them in particular are especially striking: the bold, fiery overture to "Cesare in Farmacusa" and the energetic opening movement of "Il ricco d'un giorno." The first reminds me a lot of C.W. Glück's brilliant overture to "Don Juan": charged with relentless, electrifying power that just won't let you go. And the overture to "Il ricco d'un giorno" is certainly as brilliant as anything Mozart ever wrote.Most of the other pieces on this CD are equally well-written and well-performed. Several are less interesting, though, and I personally think the overture to "Don Chisciotte alle nozze di Gamacce" is rather stupid. (And unfortunately, the "Don Chisciotte" overture is almost identical to "L'Angiolina"'s, with only slight modifications -- on Salieri's part, I assume). While these are certainly charming overtures, frankly I have a better idea why Salieri's music didn't last: it just wasn't innovative enough. With one or two exceptions, I can't see how the works on this recording stand out from the typical 18th-century overture. Entertaining for a while, yes... but not really lasting. However, don't worry about the quality of the recording. Although Naxos CDs vary greatly in quality, Michael Dittrich and the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra have done the label a service here. Their performance is vibrant and very well done.
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