The Paratore brothers serve up their own arrangements of renowned opera overtures and waltzes in this oddly titled collection. If Mozart’s Magic Flute overture doesn’t quite take wing, the same composer’s overture to The Marriage of Figaro is taken at a clip that causes phrases to nearly derail. The brothers find their center with a scampering, witty Rossini Barber of Seville overture, and an effective retooling of Suppé’s chestnut Poet and Peasant. Their energetic “de-orchestration” of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Dance of the Tumblers holds its own next to Victor Babin’s better-known, less flamboyant arrangement, and Tchaikovsky’s famous Eugene Onegin Waltz soars with decisive lilt. Listeners familiar with Otto Singer’s duo-piano version of Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier Waltz might prefer the Paratores’ more elaborate concoction. Lastly, Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus is reduced to a delicious 10-minute greatest hits medley. There’s little froth and ear-tickling fancy, though, in the siblings’ unbending rhythms and overtly bright, monochrome sonority. Recommended with qualified rapture.
