Puccini: Orchestral Music

The earliest work on this disc is the Preludio sinfonico of 1876, written when Puccini was 18. As in other early works the melodic writing is warmly persuasive but lacks a final Puccinian distinctiveness, sounding more like Mascagni. Chailly, a degree more flexible than Scimone on the Erato version, leads up well to the brass fanfares of the climax. In the Capriccio sinfonico we have the intriguing experience of registering the first fully Puccinian inspiration emerging, when after a warm but rather bland preludial passage there suddenly emerges at full force the theme which was later to open Acts 1 and 4 of La boheme, representing the Bohemians themselves. 

Here it gets incongruously mixed with what in effect is a waltz theme, though, even in that, Puccini manages to inject a snapping perfect cadence of the kind with which he later peppered La boheme. Written as a school-leaving exercise for the Milan Conservatoire, it is a striking work for a beginner, and well worth having on record.

As to the items from the early operas, the two from Le villi make an effective contrast—the opening prelude here taken much slower and more lovingly than on Lorin Maazel's complete set (CBS 76890, 5/81). The rather longer central interlude, "L'abbandono" (the desertion preceding the brilliant "La tregenda"), is left out presumably because it needs a chorus at the beginning and end. The Edgar Prelude written for Madrid is not included in the complete CBS set (79213, 1/78) but makes an effective enough piece on its own, as does the Act 3 Prelude with an eerie march theme leading to a reprise of love themes. Even so, the Manon Leseaut item with its Italianate echoes of Wagner's Tristan shows how far Puccini advanced there in his first mature opera. The Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra plays for Chailly with real warmth, and the digital recording is both brilliant and vivid.

– Edward Greenfield, Gramophone [3/1983]
reviewing the original LP release of this title