Rossini: Overtures, Andante e Tema con Variazioni CD review – exuberance and sophistication

Antonio Pappano’s Rome-based forces have had huge deserved success in the choral repertoire; here he ventures into Rossini’s dazzling opera overtures and the results are predictably fizzy and pungent: there is a real sense of shared style and communal fun. More puzzling are the changing recorded balances in the same Rome hall but over different occasions: sometimes violins seem further away than wind. But you cannot fail to be swept away by the exuberance and sophistication of the playing, and without conductor the four-wind Variations is a great added extra.