Puccini Symphonic Suites: In New Editions by Carlo Rizzi

Album review

It may have been a surprise to see this album vault onto classical best-seller charts in early 2024. The project of transferring Puccini's music to a purely orchestral medium is something of an odd one, for the action of his operas is continuous, not falling into neat musical units, and he was a vocal composer par excellence. Moreover, less than half of this release by conductor Carlo Rizzi and the Welsh National Opera Orchestra is given over to the Symphonic Suites, which were made by Rizzi himself. The rest is devoted to early orchestral pieces Puccini wrote as a conservatory student in Milan; these are not exactly common, but they have been recorded often enough. The attraction to audiences, however, is that Rizzi has done an impressive job with his arrangements. He notes that the COVID-19 pandemic gave him time to work these out, and they are good enough that one wishes for more, perhaps one of La bohème. As it is, Rizzi offers Symphonic Suites "inspired by" Madama Butterfly and Tosca. They are far enough from the originals that the qualifier is needed; Rizzi puts things together that are not together in the original scores. Annotator Roger Parker notes that "[i]n the case of the Tosca suite, the kinship between Angelotti's music and that accompanying the torture of Cavaradossi is made musically manifest." The two suites flow musically in ways natural enough that one might think they had been done by Puccini or one of his associates a century ago. Some big tunes are there, but much of the emphasis is placed on Puccini's orchestration, which is thrown into relief, so to speak, in this context. The two orchestral works, performed in new editions by Rizzi, are of interest as well. There are two versions of the Preludio Sinfonico of 1882, of which Puccini thought enough to revise it later, and Puccini's graduation piece, the Capriccio Sinfonico, with its striking anticipation of La bohème, is worth fresh performances. The Welsh National Opera Orchestra is inspired to deliver very fine string playing here, whether by Rizzi, the importance of the project, or, most likely, both. An essential find for Puccini lovers.

© James Manheim /TiVo