One of music's greater mysteries was why LP collections of Suppe's overtures stuck to the same few favourites despite occasional radio broadcasts that revealed less familiar overtures every bit as compelling. In 1990 things finally began to look up, with a sudden burst of CDs of Suppe collections under Zubin Mehta, Sir Neville Marriner and Gustav Kuhn proving the irresistibility of less hackneyed alternatives. Now Marco Polo are going still further, with a whole series of Suppe CDs in which the overtures are broken up with an occasional march or other shorter item.

As with the first volume, this second confirms not just the melodic invention of Suppe, but more particularly his astonishing rhythmic resource and vigour. Can any other composer's music have been so unremittingly exciting? Of course not all the overtures maintain quite the same consistency of invention as the very best. Yet there is always something at which to thrill, including a beautiful violin solo in the overture to Donna Juanita and a rousing conclusion to Dos Modell. A particular surprise comes with the overture to Der Kramer und sein Kommis, which turns out to be an only slightly varied version of the familiar Ein Morgen, ein Mittag, und ein Abend in Wien of seven months earlier. Sadly the point is lost on the author of the accompanying notes, as is the fact that the piece listed and described as the Fatinitza March is certainly not the familiar piece of that title. Whereas in Marco Polo's Johann Strauss Edition the conductor Alfred Walter failed to capture fully Strauss's more sensitive writing, he seems altogether better equipped for the brasher Suppe style. The result is exhilarating stuff indeed.

-- Gramophone [6/1995]