Overtures Naxos 8.570296

• Composer: Carl Maria von Weber
• Conductor: Antoni Wit
• Orchestra: New Zealand Symphony Orchestra

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.

Overture Review

While Der Freischütz, Oberon, and Euryanthe are Carl Maria von Weber's best-known and most frequently recorded operas, the rest of his output for the theater is much less familiar to modern audiences, except for several of his highly tuneful overtures, which have remained popular over the years as concert staples. This 2008 Naxos release features 10 such pieces; six celebrated opera overtures are balanced with the concert works Der Beherrscher der Geister and the Jubel-Ouvertüre, as well as with selections from the incidental music for the plays Preciosa and Turandot (the latter's overture and march employ the catchy “Air chinois,” which Paul Hindemith used for the second movement of his Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes of Carl Maria von Weber). These pieces are consistently lively, dramatic, and colorful, and listeners will find in them an agreeable mix of Classical and early Romantic styles. Antoni Wit and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra deliver this program with high energy and zest, though it's fair to say that they sometimes play with sharp attacks, most pronounced in the timpani part; but overall, this crisp playing is invigorating and easy enough to adjust to. Naxos provides rich, reverberant sound that gives the orchestra a pleasant acoustical aura, but does not obscure any details. Blair Sanderson – All Music Guide