Gioachino Rossini - Wind quartets in B-flat major & F major (1804) - Andante & Theme with Variations скачать в хорошем качестве

Gioachino Rossini - Wind quartets in B-flat major & F major (1804) - Andante & Theme with Variations

Rossini composed in 1804 a series of five instrumental sonatas for Agostino Triossi, a 23-year old landowner who had befriended him. The composer himself later recalled that "they were all composed and copied in three days and performed in a doggish way by Triossi on the double bass, Morini (his cousin) on first violin, the latters brother on cello and the second violin by myself. I was, to tell the truth, the least doggish". He also described them as "horrendous... composed by me... at the most youthful age (Rossini had barely turned twelve at the moment), when I hadnt even had a lesson in thorough-bass". And, Rossini's criticism seems to have been partially justified, as none of the concertos approach anything close to profoundness or lyrical splendor; however, it is impossible not to note that the young man was obviously at a beginning of an illustrious career with each piece exhibiting luminous humor and a keen imagination of the writer. Despite his own treatment of the works, Rossini clearly retained a fondness for them and five of the six were published in Milan around 1825 - 1826. By then Rossinis music was known throughout the Western world but was particularly popular in Paris, where he had lived since the autumn of 1824. Much was expected of him, and the first work which he composed in France, the staged cantata "Il viaggio a Reims", was first performed, with Rossini himself conducting, at the festivities surrounding the coronation of Charles X in Rheims Cathedral in June 1825 to the expected acclaim. In this particular case, we turn to the clarinetists in the performance, Frederic Berr and Giovanni Battista Gambaro, who came from the Italian Theater in Paris and who must have made their presence felt right away (especially obvious in the seldom heard theme and variations for two clarinets and orchestra which appears in the ballet sequence). It seems unlikely, however, that the composer and the player were close, though two years later Berr, himself studying composition, arranged the already mentioned five sonatas for wind quartet. There was one problem, though: the sixth quartet remained unpublished, while it was conventional to publish such works in sets of six. Berr therefore seems to have decided to arrange a further work, an andante followed by a theme with variations (which occupy most of the present upload), to round up the numbers in his own publication. The consistency in style (if not form, as all the other works are in the typical three-part structure), though, detracts from the possibility of the piece being written by Berr himself and mostly likely points to the possibility Rossini wrote it for a different ensemble, and that the arranger worked with the maestro's own material. At any rate, the result is a set of six delightful and idiomatic wind quartets which retain the spirit of Rossinis originals and remain a pleasure to perform and to hear today. I decided to limit my posting to just two movements from different quartets, in this case - the andante of the fourth and the variations of the sixth. The andante (providing just the needed contrast to the more humorous variations), like most of the central sections from the sonatas, is slightly melodramatic in style (especially in the final conventional rise of the flute, 2:29), finding the flute and clarinet (and later the horn) playing handsome sustained lines and light ornaments over the busy mumbling of the horn and the bassoon. A delightfully sunny transition between the repeat of the main theme (1:13) effectually shows the composer's humorous intentions with the whole affair (though the main melody is genuinely appealing). The variations are one of the more charming pieces in an already highly winning set. They start simply with the flute pipping out the main theme but things quickly get serious with a series of difficult variations, each of which is limited to just one soloist, passing from the bassoon's buffonish blustering and the horn's handsome hunting call to the classically coloratura-laden clarinet section. The obligatory minor section unusually gives the main melody to the bassoon (in its' only straight-faced performance), while the other trio form an echo pattern repeated twice. We finally return to the flute whose sunny variation leads into a delightfully busy coda that brings the works to a delightful conclusion. The Michael Thompson Wind Quartet (in Naxos' complete recording of the sonatas) brings together the cream of Englands finest wind instrumentalists to provide an instantly beautiful and appealing sound married to the much needed lightness of touch. Hope you'll enjoy :).