Rossini - Sonate a Quattro (Arrangement for Wind Quartet)

Gioacchino Rossini: 

Sonate A Quattro

Arrangement for Wind Quartet

Rotterdam Philharmonic Wind Soloists

Gioacchino Rossini composed his Sonate a quattro (for two violins, viola, and double bass) when he was 12 years old and performed them, he later recalled, with a group of acquaintances who "played like dogs," although he himself was the "least doggish." These sonatas are less well known than Felix Mendelssohn's somewhat more accomplished string sonatas, but they give foreshadowings of Rossini's melodic gift. They do not sound like instrumental opera arias, however, even though the early instrumental pieces of other Italian opera composers often have that characteristic. Each is in three movements and shows a sort of abstraction of the style of Haydn and Mozart. They became popular as Rossini's fame spread, and he himself arranged them for various instrumental combinations, including the version for winds performed here. The sonatas are, as the brief notes included with this budget release put it, "ideal music for amateur music-making," and it is in that spirit that the Rotterdam Philharmonic Wind Soloists approach them. They are certainly more technically talented than Rossini and his canine companions, but they don't let that make them take the music too seriously. They are alert to the clever ways Rossini gives each instrument the spotlight and bring a sense of excitement (or, in the slow movements, special lyricism) to these moments even though there's nothing really technically challenging involved. The sound, although originating in a church, is warm and clear. Rossini's sonatas served many a Parisian in the nineteenth century for light listening or background music, and they will be satisfying for the same purpose in this little recording.