Peter Breiner's arrangements of music from these two operas succeed on a number of levels. First, the two works offer a great deal of symphonic...

Peter Breiner's arrangements of music from these two operas succeed on a number of levels. First, the two works offer a great deal of symphonic music to work with (the ballets in Vixen, and the overture and pantomime in House). Second, he has arranged the excerpts very intelligently for continuous listening. In the Vixen Suite it's great to hear the scene in Act 3 with the baby foxes, and it makes an excellent lead-in to the final bars. Similarly, the preludes to the second and third acts of House are nicely integrated into lengthier tracts of music.

Yes, I have a couple of quibbles. The added percussion is completely unnecessary: why all the triangle in the Vixen suite? Obviously there's nothing wrong with substituting instruments for vocal lines, or filling out the texture of bare accompaniments, but Breiner gets a bit carried away in spots (though certainly not worse than Janácek's early arrangers, Vaclav Talich included).

As a conductor, Breiner is almost totally successful. Occasionally his tempos drag a bit, as in the "Eagle, King of the Forests" music in House, or in the closing scene of the Vixen's first act--it ought to be mayhem personified, but here it's simply too careful. Elsewhere, everything goes very well, with the New Zealand Symphony making a more positive impression here than in earlier releases in this series. Perhaps it's at least partly due to the generally more colorful orchestration, which the engineering projects to vivid effect. Strongly recommended.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com