Franz Schubert: Overture In The Italian Style No.2 in C major, D.591 (1817)

Description by Blair Johnston [-]
From the end of 1816, when the Viennese musical public was first introduced to the music of Gioachino Rossini by the visiting Italian Opera Company, and for more than a decade, ending with the production of the composer's final opera, William Tell (1829), Austria was head over heels in love with Rossini and his fleet-footed but serious-minded style. The twenty-year-old Franz Schubert was among those infected by this wave of Rossini fever, and in November 1817 he took a break from working on his Sixth Symphony to pay informal tribute to Rossini with a pair of overtures "In the Italian Style" -- not the composer's own appellation, but one that is apt enough.
If the Overture in C major, D. 591 is the better known of these two eclectic works, it is likely because its first publication (1865) predated that of its companion by some twenty years. It is not wholly accurate to say that this charming work draws exclusively on Rossini's style, since a listener might be briefly tempted during the opening strains of the slow introduction to ascribe the work to Beethoven, or perhaps even Haydn. That impression is quickly erased, however, when a duet for clarinet and bassoon serves up a repetitive, chromatically inflected melody and gentle "oom-pah" accompaniment with a particularly Italian character. Soon the body of the overture begins in a fast tempo, introducing a mock-pompous, happily bouncing tune whose sharp, dotted rhythms ride upon the kind of simple, one-beat-to-the-bar accompaniment so favored by the Italian violinist-composer Nicolò Paganini (still unknown outside of Italy at this time).
A new, bel canto-type tune is sung by the flute and oboe, after which Schubert provides a good facsimile of the much-loved "Rossini crescendo," building and building on a repeating cell until at last a climax is reached. A reprise of the beginning of the fast music includes another such crescendo at the corresponding location, this time leading to a spirited presto that shows how well the young composer had assimilated those features of Rossini's music that he loved into his own rather broader style.
Source: Allmusic
Royal Concertgeouw Orchestra & Antal Dorati
Decca Classics

[@farrelpermadi5471]

This Overture gives me the resemblance of Schubert's 6th Symphony, especially the 4h Movement of his 6th

[@user-tl8oj4tv1g]

An absolutely magnificent work.

[@paulwl3159]

A delightful, melodious and masterful work, which stands comparison with the joyful side of Rossini

[@user-ni3qw9xi9f]

2:48

[@Sayeedur123]

This is so cute