Serate Musicali
Jennifer Vyvyan (soprano)
Joan Gray (contralto)
Alexander Young (tenor) Norman Lumsden (bass)
Robert Keys (piano)
La promessa; La partenza; La pesca; La danza; L'invito; II marinari
First of two programmes of Rossini's Serate Musicali
From 1810, when he was twenty, until 1829, when William Tell was produced in Paris, Rossini composed operas at the rate of two a year; but for the remaining fifty-seven years of his life he retired from the musical world and produced only a handful of compositions. One of the most attractive of these is the set of Serate Musicali , twelve songs and duets to poems by Metastasio and Count Pepoli, published in Paris in 1835. Deryck Cooke