Top 10 Overtures

[Petrushka]

Another pointless chart thread (as suggested on the symphonies thread) for a harmless bit of fun. I've moved my list over from there listing only one overture per composer

Why don't we get these as often in concert programmes as we once did? They are all superb openers.

Wagner: Die Meistersinger
Strauss: Die Fledermaus
Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream
Herold: Zampa
Suppe: Light Cavalry
Rossini: William Tell
Glinka: Ruslan and Ludmilla
Berlioz: The Corsair
Shostakovich: Festive Overture
Borodin: Prince Igor

[salymap]

Pointless but fun, in moderation. No one has to answer.

Is anyone clever/kind enough to add my list of Overtures from the middle of the 10 symphonies thread or do I have to type them all over again in the morning?

[salymap]

My list of overtures,previously on Symphonies thread, more interesting than concertos imho, all those beautiful varied pieces.

Arnold Beckus the Dandypratt
Balakirev Overture on 3 Russian Themes
Berlioz King Lear
Dvorak In Nature's Realm
Elgar Froissart
Ireland London Overture
Mendelssohn Fair Melusine
Mozart MagicFlute
Sullivan Patience
Wagner Das Liebesverbot

I mean more interesting as a list. Obviously I like/love many concertos and will join that thread if it is still there.

[antongould]

Beethoven Leonore
Elgar Cockaigne
Glinka Ruslan and Ludmilla
Mendelssohn Hebdides
Rossini Thieving Magpie
Schumann Manfred
Suppe Light Cavalry
Tchaikovsky 1812
Vin Reznicek Donna Diana
Wagner Rienzi

[Op. XXXIX]

Elgar Cockaigne

+1. Awesome.

Wouldn't want it to open a concert, though. It might tend to dwarf everything following!

[BBMmk2]

In no partivcular order(personally,I love these lists!! or Liszt's)

Wagner Die Mesitersinger
Suppe Light Cavalry
Elgar Cockiagne
Beethoven: Egmont & Fidelio
Shostakovich: Festive Overture
Brahms: Academic Festival
Berlioz: Benveuto Cellini; Carnaval Romain

(Have to get my thinking cap on)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Elgar: Cockaigne
Mendelssohn: The Hebrides
Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet
Handel: Messiah
Wagner: Tannhauser (but it's a close-run thing with Die Meistersinger)
Rossini: William Tell
Beethoven: Coriolan
Weber: Der Freischutz
Mozart: Don Giovanni
Sullivan: The Yeoman of the Guard

[Norfolk Born]

Although I wasn't paying that much attention, I think Petroc Trelawney just played 'Le Corsaire'. Just out of interest, does anybody know anything about his 'tautological reference' of yesterday, to which he referred earlier on this morning?

[MickyD]

Although I wasn't paying that much attention, I think Petroc Trelawney just played 'Le Corsaire'. Just out of interest, does anybody know anything about his 'tautological reference' of yesterday, to which he referred earlier on this morning?

I was mystified by this reference, too, not having heard yesterday's programme - very irritating for those of us who didn't have a clue what he meant!

For a really thrilling but rather neglected overture, what about Cherubini's "Anacréon"?

[Petrushka]

+1. Awesome.

Wouldn't want it to open a concert, though. It might tend to dwarf everything following!

Elgar himself said that Cockaigne was ideally placed to close a first half. The way concert planners work these days I'm not sure you'll find that happening.

[makropulos]

Beethoven Leonore No. 3
Berlioz Roman Carnival
Borodin Prince Igor
Brahms Tragic
Glinka Ruslan and Ludmila
Kabalevsky Colas Breugnon
Mendelssohn Fair Melusine
Sullivan Yeomen of the Guard
Verdi Forza del Destino
Wagner Meistersinger

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I've always thought of Cockaigne as the 15th Enigma Variation, having first got to know it on the Philharmonia/Barbirolli LP.

[Op. XXXIX]

Elgar himself said that Cockaigne was ideally placed to close a first half.

I've always thought that's the best place for it, and delighted to know that I am in agreement with Elgar! (The last time I heard Cockaigne in concert, it closed the first half.)

[Mahlerei]

Arnold: A Grand, Grand Overture
Boito: Mefistofele
Berlioz: Benvenuto Cellini
Brahms: Academic Festival Overture
Dvorak: Hussite Overture
Korngold: Overture to Captain Blood
Rossini: Thieving Magpie
Strauss: Rosenkavalier
Taneyev: Oresteia
Tchaikovsky: Festive Overture on the Danish National Anthem

[Roehre]

Today's list of 10:

Beethoven: Leonore III
Beyerman-Walraven: concertoverture
Brahms: Tragic
Bridge: Rebus
Ives: Robert Browning
Mahler(?): symphonic Prelude
Pfitzner: Kätchen von Heilbronn
von Reznicek: Donna Diana
Tormis: overture no.2
Wagner: Tannhäuser (with Venusberg-musik!)