There were times, listening to this record, when I thought I ought to be enjoying it more than I was; and there were other times when I thought I should be enjoying it less than I was. Menuhin’s conducting has zest, that’s for sure; and there is affection and musical refinement in the alfresco musings of the Guillaume Tell Overture. The orchestral playing, as you would expect of this ensemble, is generally pointed and stylish, crisp and nicely balanced. So what is amiss? The worst thing about the performances is hastiness at certain – by the end, entirely predictable – points in the Rossinian scheme (most obviously in the crescendos; times when the Rossini train does not so much sway across the points as rush, judder and threaten to jump them.
I also have to confess that I don’t much care for the programme (it seems a slightly rum mixture) or (an old King Charles’s head of mine) for the way it has been assembled: arbitrarily and non-chronologically. So planned, it does not make for a particularly good ‘listen’. Add to that a certain heedlessness and predictability in the playing itself, and the disc has to be judged a disappointment, as, indeed, are the vast majority of Rossini overture discs – those listed above being famous and welcome exceptions.'