Opera owes to Rossini the evolution of new musical forms in the service of the drama: in particular, the expansion and integration of the function of the chorus; the development of the coloratura aria; the introduction of new subjectmatter to revitalise the stereotypes of opera seria; and the creation of brilliant overtures able to take their place in the concert repertory.
PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRIS LEE Alan Gilbert began the concert with a disappointingly literal account of John Adams's brilliant foxtrot overture "The Chairman Dances" (1985), a kind of study for the opera "Nixon in China," which Adams was beginning to compose at the time.
The records that followed during the early 1960s maintained a quality that came to be expected as a matter of course, and reflect a London concert repertory that included music by Schubert, Brahms, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Ravel, brilliant Rossini overtures and memorable performances of the Verdi Requiem - finally committed to disc, with the four Pezzi Sacri, in 1964.
On Saturday evening, they returned to Carnegie with two brilliant orchestral workouts, Berlioz's brief overture "Le Corsaire" (Op. 21) and Lutoslawski's magnificent Concerto for Orchestra.
Mr. Bantock opened the concert with a spirited rendering of Dvorak's Carneval Overture, and closed it with a brilliant performance of Berlioz's Hungarian March.
After intermission Mr. Kelly displayed his crisp articulation and scurrying passagework in the challenging piano part to Mendelssohn's "Neue Liebe" ("New Love"), a fleet, brilliant song that evokes the spirit of his Overture to "A Midsummer Night's Dream".
The classical music schedule next offers the Orchestra of St . Lukes in a substantive program on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. in the Venetian Theater: Peter Oundjian conducts Verdi's Overture to "La Forza del Destino"; Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto, with the brilliant pianisubstantiveonfman as soloist; and Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symprogram
A brilliant Orchestral Suite in D minor by the German composer Johann Friedrich Fasch opened with a French-style overture and included a glorious Italianate aria for oboe and bassoon.
