OFFENBACH Overtures
Orchestre National de Lille
DARRELL ANG (Conductor)
Naxos 8.573683 / ****1/2
How
much do we actually know about the composer Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880)? For
starters, he was German rather than French. He was also a virtuoso cellist who
later became the most celebrated composer of operettas in Paris from the late
1850s till his death. This collection of overtures led by Singaporean conductor
Darrell Ang contains some of Offenbach
Most
well-known is the Overture to Orpheus In the Underworld, with its
ubiquitous cancan, but has anyone noticed an oboe motif past the
two-and-a-half-minute mark which resembles the fanfare from Zubir Said's
national anthem Majulah Singapura? Listeners might also recognise the
popular themes in the overtures to La Belle Helene and La Vie
Parisienne.
The
other overtures are very obscure, from operettas like The Grand Duchess of
Gerolstein, The Drum-Major's Daughter, The Island of Tulipatan,
Monsieur and Madame Denis, all of which are extremely tuneful and have
that tub-thumping oompah quality.
The real rarity is the early Ouverture a Grand Orchestra (1843), a stand-alone work which recalls the operatic
overtures of Carl Maria von Weber and Rossini. A slow introduction soon gives
way to an exciting allegro, which builds up in speed, volume and intensity,
in short the archetypal Rossini crescendo. Ang and his French charges
make the best possible case for this arcane corner of the orchestral
repertoire.
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