Much of this music appeared on a recent disc on the PhilArtis label. Those performances were serviceable, but there’s no question that the music makes a much more positive impression on this release. As I mentioned in connection with that previous issue, there are some wonderful moments here: the ecstatic first movement of Trittico, and the finale of the Suite, which sounds like it wandered in from Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin. All of the music is pretty, to be sure, but it would be difficult to say that these are anything but slight works of a composer who devoted his main attention to opera. Still, Ulf Schirmer and his Munich players deliver performances of much greater incisiveness and polish than their predecessors, and so if you’re curious about this composer’s non-operatic music, this very well recorded disc represents your best bet.
