Operas were known for their big tunes long before
the Three Tenors came along, and prior to the age of mechanical reproduction, chamber arrangements were the most frequent way of reproducing those tunes in the home. The wind ensemble was a common medium for such arrangements at the end of the eighteenth century, and there is a good deal of interest in the various resurrections of these operas for winds that have appeared on CD. This disc offers an arrangement of Don Giovanni by oboist, composer, and conductor Josef Triebensee, for wind octet -- paired oboes, clarinets, horns, and bassoons. The music is both pleasant and intellectually stimulating. The skill of the wind writing falls as gracefully on modern ears as it did on those of Mozart's time. Especially notable is the handling of the bassoon, which wouldn't seem quite capable of handling the Don's big arias, but does so nicely in Triebensee's arrangements. For the theorist and reception historian it is Triebensee's abridgements of Mozart's music that will compel the most attention. What were the parts of Don Giovanni that Mozart's audiences most wanted to hear? This disc offers a possible answer. Triebensee omits all the recitatives but transcribes 19 of Mozart's 24 arias (including two inserted for the Viennese premiere). He also makes cuts, trimming the overture to about half its original length -- but it's done so artfully that you have to pay attention to pick the cuts out. The performance by La Gran Partita (or the Zurich Wind Octet -- these are, confusingly, two different names for the same group) is terrific, with scrupulous attention to the subtle balance demands of these arrangements, and the inclusion of a small piece of night music by the much-maligned Salieri is both appropriate and enjoyable. Highly recommended as both an enjoyable hour of wind music and for libraries as a ready-made source of term-paper topics.