Moniuszko: Overtures—Warsaw Philharmonic/Antoni Wit (Naxos 572716)
This 2014 release presents a generous helping of orchestral music by the leading light of Polish opera in the 19 th century, Stanislaw Moniuszko. The pieces collected here are of two types: first, overtures to operas and operettas, and second, orchestral works very close to proto-tone-poems, concert overtures. Moniuszko’s most famous opera is Halka, which premiered New Year’s Day, 1848 in Vilnius and was later expanded from two acts to four. Its overture is one of the 10 offerings on this disc, along with the witty prelude to an operetta based on Cervantes, completed in 1841 called The New Don Quixote, or 100 Follies. As Henry Fogel said in his Fanfare review, “If you don’t have [a collection of Moniuszko overtures], or if you consider yourself a Moniuszko fanatic, then this would be the place to go.”