大象传媒

This week, Donald Macleod presents five takes on the life and music of Gioachino Rossini. Today, the music that Rossini didn鈥檛 have to write.

According to Rossini鈥檚 biographer Richard Osborne, the composer left a 鈥渓arge and absorbingly diverse collection of non-operatic compositions鈥� 鈥� some written during his career, many more after his early retirement from the stage in 1831. They range from a short occasional fanfare for four horns and orchestra written as a musical thank-you for a well-to-do host who was crazy about hunting, to the masterpiece of Rossini鈥檚 late years, the Petite messe solennelle, which the composer prefaced with a tongue-in-cheek letter to God: 鈥淕ood God, there we have it, complete, this poor little Mass. Is it really sacred music that I鈥檝e made, or is it merely abominable music? I was born for opera buffa, as Thou well knowest. Little skill, a little heart, and that is all. So be Thou blessed, and admit me to Paradise. G. Rossini. Passy, 1863.鈥�

String Sonata No 1 in G; 3rd mvt, Allegro
Ensemble de I Virtuosi Italiani

Messa di Gloria; Kyrie eleison鈥擟hriste eleison鈥擪yrie eleison
Francisco Araiza, tenor
Ra煤l Gimenez, tenor
Academy and Chorus of St Martin-in-the-Fields
Neville Marriner, conductor

La pastorella
Belt脿 crudele
Cecilia Bartoli, mezzo soprano
Charles Spencer, piano

Serenata per piccolo compresso
Members of the Budapest Festival Orchestra

Le Rendez-vous de chasse
Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi
Riccardo Chailly, conductor

Petite messe solennelle; Credo鈥擟rucifixus鈥擡t resurrexit
Kari L酶vaas, soprano
Brigitte Fassbaender, alto
Peter Schreier, tenor
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone
Die M眉nchner Vokalsolisten
Reinhard Raffalt, harmonium
Hans Ludwig Hirsch, piano
Wolfgang Sawallisch, piano and conductor

Produced by Chris Barstow for 大象传媒 Wales