Gioachino Rossini : Maometto secondo

   in Opera Now (Jul, 2014)
Garsington Opera’s first recording venture is a great memento of last summer’s British staged premiere of Rossini’s sprawling beast, and a reminder of what an all-round performance that was. David Parry’s conducting is just brilliant; his judgment of pacing and the way he handles the expanded time of Rossini’s vastly long conversations sound almost more impressive here than they did at Wormsley. Because it is a live recording there is some stage noise, and the sound is nowhere as sharp as it would be in a studio, but the crisp, muscular orchestra comes across with clarity, the chorus is impressively robust, and it never becomes a soup of sound. The plusses …