"...All of these, and the other, better known, works, are played with real spirit and style and recorded clearly and cleanly... This is an admirable start to what looks like being a very desirable series." 

 

John Sheppard - MusicWeb-International.com - 8 January 2013

 

                      Artistic Quality 9           Sound Quality 9

"Up to now, the standard collection of Rossini overtures has been Neville Marriner’s correct but somewhat flat-footed series on Philips. This new project promises to improve on that set considerably. Christian Benda’s Prague Sinfonia has all of the discipline of Marriner’s ensemble, but with an extra sprightliness and vivacity—bright piccolo and wind sonorities plus crisp percussion—that the earlier set doesn’t match. There’s more sheer fun in the music making on this new release, a quality that’s fully in evidence and properly exploited, even in Rossini’s most serious music ...The selection of works is well chosen for maximum variety. Ermione, one of Rossini’s most remarkable and undervalued masterpieces, has an overture featuring choral interjections that are extremely arresting. The Sinfonia in D ‘al Conventello’ is an early work that predates Rossini’s operatic career, but reveals much of the composer to come. Elisabetta, Regina d’Inghilterra uses the first version of what later became the overture to The Barber of Seville. The Siege of Corinth reveals the sophisticated composer of his last, Parisian period ... "

 

David Hurwitz - ClassicsToday.com - October 2012