Rossini wrote some of music’s most masterful and lovable operas. His gift for comic and tragic forms was matched by a relish for characterisation, qualities that are always evident in his overtures. La gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie) is perhaps the most famous, one of the world’s most popular concert openers.

But in Otello he reveals his more complex turns of phrase, and in Le siège de Corinthe the writing is dramatic and colourful. The overture for Elisabetta, Regina d’Inghilterra was used again a year later by Rossini for Il barbiere di Siviglia.

Witty and vital, but also darker and rather less well known, Rossini’s overtures cover a wide variety of moods and expressions. They make for a finely balanced programme and, whilst the favourites have been multiply recorded, others are very much under represented in the catalogue.

The Prague Sinfonia Orchestra and Christian Benda have been widely praised critically for their Schubert overture series (8570328 & 8570329) – and this Rossini series will offer similar rewards. Christian Benda is descended from a long line of musicians. He is chief conductor and artistic director of the Prague Sinfonia Orchestra with which he has recorded numerous standard classical works, as well as Schubert’s and Rossini’s complete overtures.

This is the first of four discs of the complete Rossini Overtures.