 Un Rossini de douze ans trousse un été six sonates pour quelques copains… On est pourtant loin de la futilité ou de l’exercice académique. A l’ouverture du boîtier j’avais quelques appréhensions au souvenir de tant de tunnels d’ennui à l’écoute de versions pour ensemble à cordes données en début de concert, pour se mettre en doigts. Mais voilà, cette version « à quatre » (pas si souvent enregistrée) rend à cette musique sa vitalité et son côté divertissant : la vocalité des thèmes donne envie de les chanter à pleins poumons, les musiciens ne dédaignent pas l’humour, et des images ne tardent pas à traverser l’esprit de l’auditeur… L’indolence de l’andante de la sonate en Sol évoque l’entrée des deux sœurs de « Cosi fan tutte », la contrebasse de l’inusable sonate en Ut fait des pointes dignes des hippopotames de Fantasia, là on croit entendre un thème préfigurant de loin la future « Truite » de qui vous savez. En complément de programme un duo plus tardif pour violoncelle et contrebasse se coule facilement dans la tonalité générale plutôt décontractée. Pas étonnant que les interprètes, dont le livret omet de nous parler, infusent une telle italianité à tout cela : tous quatre sont des piliers de l’orchestre de La Scala milanaise (les deux violonistes en étant « leader » et « co-leader »). Un disque qui s’il n’est pas tout à fait exceptionnel est tout le moins remarquable, au sens littéral. (Olivier Eterradossi) Move over Mendelssohn: new recordings of six summery string quartets composed by the prodigiously gifted teenage Rossini. These sonatas, saucy and urbane, are the work of the young Rossini, who was possibly though not certainly 12 at the time of their composition while spending his summer holidays on the family estate of the Ravenna aristocracy. They are great fun, for the composer wrote them originally for two violins, cello, and double bass, and set a variety of obstacles for his friend the double bassist Agostino Triossi. Rossini’s youth in any case quickly becomes immaterial when listening to these works, which demonstrate a fluency and finesse that many composers would struggle to emulate whatever their age. The pieces were later transcribed by others for normal string quartet, for woodwind quartet, even for full string orchestra, in which capacity four of them were recorded by the Berlin Philharmonic and Karajan. However, Rossini’s original version retains an unrivalled freshness of expression, and no one can fail to be entertained by the overt drama of No. 6, with its last movement rising in the chromatic waves so beloved of Berlioz, or the occasional galloping efforts of the double basses, taking their turn at figurations more at home on the violins. While the Sonatas have enjoyed no shortage of recordings, very few of them are so generously or appropriately coupled with the bonus item here. This is a Duet for cello and double bass in D major from Rossini’s maturity: he was all of 32 at the time, by then a celebrity across Europe and staying in London with another aristocratic instrumentalist, an English cellist in search of repertoire to partner his friend, the virtuoso bassist Domenico Dragonetti, who had made his career in the English capital. The Duo is a substantial three-movement piece proportioned along the same Classical lines as the Sonatas and no less attractive. All four of these Italian musicians are principal players in the orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the upper three being members of the Quartetto d’Archi della Scala, and their performances are accordingly imbued with the lively, native feel for this joyous music, which finds them ‘on holiday’ as much as the composer was when he wrote it.
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