How do you blow a Wolf-Ferrari program? Even Neville Marriner, not exactly Mr. Personality on the podium, delivered fine performances of this largely unassuming, colorful, and sweetly melodic music. Gianandrea Noseda, theoretically Italian, doesn’t seem to give a damn. The overture to Susanna’s Secret totally lacks charm, humor, bounce, and rhythmic accentuation. It’s simply breathless. Nor will you find a trace of earthiness in the Danza napolitana from The Jewels of the Madonna. I would have thought this piece virtually indestructible, but Noseda proves me wrong. Again the problem is speed purchased at the expense of virtually all other musical qualities.
Karen Geoghegan plays the bassoon well enough in the Suite-Concertino, but she’s far too closely recorded, and as with the other pieces on the disc the BBC Philharmonic is its usual proficient but cold and characterless self. Especially when playing loudly, the orchestra’s tendency to “spread”, to lose rhythmic definition and degenerate into a sort of flabby noise, eloquently attests to the lack of inspiration coming from the podium. It’s hard to be both fast and boring in Italian music, but Noseda manages. Pass on this one.
