In the days when those of us of a certain age bought LPs, Suppé
Overtures were a standard part of such a collection. Normally you
could get four on each side and the standard classics were
Light
Cavalry,
Morning, Noon and Night in Vienna and
Poet
and Peasant. They were pieces you knew and heard on the Light
Programme - later called Radio 2 would you believe - or elsewhere
often in curious arrangements or at the Sunday bandstand. I don’t
know why but it seems odd that Chandos of all labels and Neeme Järvi
of all conductors should feel that they want to tackle this project
but they do.
Here we have eight overtures with the added interest of marches. There
are also other bits of incidental music created within the operettas
but which are less well known. These from a composer known sometimes
as the ‘Viennese Offenbach’ having been born in what was
then Austria, now Croatia.
In many cases Järvi’s tempi are much brisker than you may
be used to. The disc is so well filled that if he had added a couple
of overly exaggerated rallentandos one of the items would have had
to go, perhaps that accounts for his tempi. A casualty of this is
the Overture
The Beautiful Galatea with its absolutely
gorgeous waltz tune, which comes twice. Järvi lacks style in
this wonderful melody and it all appears rather breathless. Indeed
Light Cavalry is also so fast that the string articulations
and syncopations are not clear in the
Allegretto brillante
section; notice that it’s only
Allegretto. I find this
all rather disappointing but then Järvi has done this sort of
thing before, as I recall.
That said, most other pieces come off very well. Järvi responds
positively to the exuberance of the Overture
Boccaccio,
one of the composer’s most inventive and successful operettas
which includes the rarely encountered rather Straussian
Boccaccio
March, the booklet notes indicate that this march concludes the
opera in a bound of joy but it has little to do with the author or
with the book! The same thing applies to the operetta
Pique Dame
using Pushkin’s story
The Queen of Spades, to which Suppé’s
plot is only vaguely related, although the overture is one of his
best. Its good to know that Suppé could write memorable tunes
right up to the end as in the middle section of his last overture
to the incomplete operetta
The Modelwhich ends with
yet another March.
A March of special interest is the
Marziale using themes from
a real hit, the operetta
Fatinitza, a military story based
around events in the Crimean war. Max Schönherr compiled this
piece using about four of the best tunes. Its opening trumpet fanfare
sets the appropriate mood. A further march is the short
Up Hill
and Down Dale, a piece of uncertain antecedents. There is also
the happy little
Juanita-March,
a work set in Spain at
the time of the Peninsular War. Suppé adds some attractive
castanets for local colour.
Another rare oddity, but a distinctly attractive and witty one is
the
Humorous Variations on a Student Song, indeed the very
song which Brahms, who admitted to being influenced by Suppé,
also used for his
Academic Festival Overture. In Suppé’s
hands it turns into a waltz, a gallop and to start with a sort of
mysterious
Lament.
The booklet cover picture shows the marching Imperial Viennese Guard.
You will have gathered by now that many of these operettas had a militaristic
plot but often set within a comic context. One such is
Isabella
with its splendid trumpet fanfares and marching opening melody. Here
Rossini might come to mind - a composer whom Suppé had carefully
studied. In fact his earliest overture the famous
Morning, Noon
and Night in Vienna is also rather Rossini-like; at times it recalls
Weber also.
I have much enjoyed this disc despite the opening caveats and I’m
sure that you will too. The orchestra responds enthusiastically but
precisely to the music. The booklet essay by Calum MacDonald tells
you all you need to know. There are a few black and white photos and
the Super-Audio recording is superb, immediate and detailed.
Gary Higginson
see also reviews by Simon
Thompson, Dan
Morgan, John
Sheppard and Rob
Barnett
Track Listing
Overture to Leichte Kavallerie (1866) [6:33]
Overture to Boccaccio (1879) [6:51]
Boccaccio-Marsch (1879) [2:36]
Overture to Pique Dame (1864) [6:45]
Humoristische Variationen (1848) [5:46]
Overture to Dichter und Bauer (1846) [9:26]
Marziale nach Motiven aus der Operette - Fatinitza (1876)
[4:24]
Overture to Das Modell (1895) [6:35]
Uber Berg, uber Thal (date uncertain) Adaptation by Max Schönherr
(1903-1984) [2:35]
Overture to Die schöne Galathee (1865) [6:51]
Juanita-Marsch (1880) [4:39]
Overture to Ein Morgen, ein Mittag und ein Abend in Wien (1844)
[8:08]
[79:42] 
