COMPANY: Naxos
CATEGORY: CD
COMPOSER: Carl Maria Friedrich von Weber

Product: 747313029679

Out of stock

Carl Maria von Weber composed a number of pioneering works for the operatic stage as well as incidental music whose highly attractive scores combine Classical principles of clarity with a unique lyricism and orchestral mastery that would inspire later Romantic composers.

This disc presents overtures from his ever-popular Der Freischütz, Euryanthe and Oberon, as well as from other undeservedly lesser-known operatic works, alongside concert pieces such as the Jubel-Ouvertüre and Der Beherrscher der Geister, and the incidental music for the plays Preciosa and Turandot, all of which amply display his vivid and refined dramatic imagination.

In a recent concert the Dominion Post praised the “superb playing” of the NZSO.

April 2009

…Antoni Wit has a genuine feel for the music, and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra responds well throughout. Strongly recommended.

2010

Here are all six opera overtures, plus those for the incidental music to Preciosa and Turandot.
The Ruler of the Spirits and Jubel are independent pieces, the latter celebratory and ending with a terrific orchestration of the tune we know as 'God Save the Queen', the former one of Weber's most brilliant pieces, one that really ought to feature more as a concert-opener.
Antoni Wit goes at it with a will, and nimbly catches the good humour of the Abu Hassan overture, not least thanks to a lively oboe here and in Peter Schmoll. The orchestra also boasts a good horn section, very much called for in both Oberon and Der Freischütz. Peter Schmoll and Silvana are attractive examples of how early Weber began finding his voice as an orchestrator, in the case of Schmoll when still in his teens.
If only the sound were better, this would be an easy record to recommend. But as well as writing beautifully for wind, Weber makes demands on the richness and depth of the full orchestra and, especially in Euryanthe and Oberon, on the hurtling virtuosity of the strings. A crowded acoustic does not help clarity here, or in the busy figuration at the climax of Jubel. The seldomplayed Turandot, with its quirky little oriental tune that caught Hindemith's ear for his Weber Metamorphoses, fares rather better.

Works Weber: Abu Hassan Overture Weber: The Ruler of the Spirits, J122 Weber: The Freischütz Weber: The Freischütz Overture Weber: The Ruler of the Spirits Overture Weber: Euryanthe Overture Weber: Jubilee Overture, J245 (Op. 59) Weber: Oberon Overture Weber: Peter Schmoll, Overture J8 (Op. 8) Weber: Preciosa, Overture J279 (Op. 78) Weber: Silvana, Overture J87 Weber: Turandot Overture and March J75 Conductors Wit, Antoni Groups & Artists New Zealand Symphony Orchestra