Track Listing

1. Allegro Moderato
2. Adagio Poco Andante
3. Rondeau. Moderato
4. Grave. Allegro
5. Menuet. Moderato
6. Allegretto
7. Presto
8. Allegro Maestoso
9. Adagio
10. Rondeau. Moderato
11. Allegro Assai
12. Menuet. Moderato
13. Larghetto
14. Allegro

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #237404 in Music
• Released on: 2006-02-21
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

You say Mozartean -- I say Rosettiesque!
In the few reviews I've read of this CD, the critics almost seem to be blowing a fuse, perhaps cowed by their responsibility to uphold the judgments of their predescessors who would tell us that, from the classical period, there is Mozart and Haydn and nothing else. The critic from Klassik Heute goes on to say that Rosetti would be perfect background music for your "morning ablutions," and then in the very next sentence that Anton Steck, the violinist here, is too rough and passionate. I guess the guy likes cutting himself while shaving...

I'll put my cards on the table. I agree that Haydn towers over everyone else from the period, having the longest life and the most time to refine his art, but I think that Mozart is pretty much garbage except for a dozen or so compositions that went beyond what anyone else was doing. There is a conniving side to Mozart and his method of placing two or three "earworms," as the Germans say, those being catchy melodies, in an opera which make everyone forget that the rest is harmonically and rhythmically moldy. And sometimes those melodies are even stolen ( "Soave il vento" is nicked right from Dittersdorf's Symphonies after Ovid's Metamorphoses, the Adagio from the Symphony in G Major -- check it out and then check the dates if you don't believe me. )

Okay. Whatever spark of genius that allowed the harried and short-lived Mozart to create The Magic Flute, the Symphony # 40 and some of the quintets and trios could never be achieved by the equably tempered Rosetti. But what we're talking about is a dozen or so divinely inspired works versus 400 or so perfectly crafted ones ( that's how many Rosetti racked up, and though I haven't heard them all, I've also never heard a bad one. ) If you can't see that the violin concertos on this CD are at least a hundred times better than the tossed-off folderol that Mozart calls violin concertos, which have been recorded to the point of mockery -- three sets this anniversary month alone -- you're either brain-dead, deaf, musically hapless or better off listening to Sheryl Crow. Or lying to yourself. Sorry to put it crudely.

I'm stating my case with adolescent rebelliousness because I'm frustrated by the lukewarm responses to the Rosetti CDs that have been released so far -- except in the latest issue of Fanfare, I think, or it might be International Record Review, where the critic says the CPO box of his wind concertos is mandatory -- and don't want anyone from holding back or admitting the truth. The truth is that they would and will enjoy Rosetti more than they've ever enjoyed Mozart, even if they can't admit that to themselves or have too much self-worth and taste invested in stock opinions that are blatantly wrong and which have resulted in almost total paralysis and death for the classical industry.

Rosetti's symphonies are better served on the two discs devoted to the composer on MD & G, also conducted by Moesus, who is Rosetti's determined champion. But the violin concertos on this CPO disc are exhilarating. I detected some roughness in Anton Steck's playing at first, like he was always trying to play catch-up with his own conception of the pieces. This evaporated after a couple listens and now I don't miss an Anne-Sophie Mutter or Andrew Manze at all ( let alone a Maxim Vengerov. ) Rosetti's specialty was almost certainly the concerto. He was one of those composers, stretching in a long line from Reicha to Koechlin to Aho, who seem to BECOME the instrument he writes for -- not for him to proclaim that he despises the flute. Almost every movement in his concertos feature a cadenza, which could have been repetitive or structurally inept, except wait until you hear these cadenzas... They are so far ahead of their time and so zen in their methodology and the way they constantly introduce new ideas while seeming to hang back and contemplate their next move, that they are closer to Steve Lacy on the soprano sax than to Mozart.

I can say nothing more. Keep away from those razors. This CD, and everything else by Rosetti, will be a shock for anyone who loves classical music.