PotW #136: Rossini - William Tell Overture
Good morning everyone, happy Tuesday, and welcome back to another meeting of our sub’s weekly listening club. Each week, we'll listen to a piece recommended by the community, discuss it, learn about it, and hopefully introduce us to music we wouldn't hear otherwise :)
Last time we met, we listened to Wiklund’s Piano Concerto in e minor. You can go back to listen, read up, and discuss the work if you want to.
Our next Piece of the Week is Gioachino Rossini’s William Tell Overture (1829)
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Some listening notes from Orrin Howard:
“… the piece as a whole is treated with incontestable superiority, a verve such as Rossini had perhaps never shown before in such alluring fashion… the overture to William Tell is a work of an immense talent which resembles genius so closely as to be mistaken for it.” The quote is by Hector Berlioz, who wrote at length – essentially in complimentary terms – about Rossini’s now very famous overture to his 35th and final opera.
The opera was premiered in Paris in 1829, just about the time Berlioz was preparing to compose his Symphonie fantastique, and the wild-eyed French composer-turned-critic found much to excite him in the opera’s overture. Some other of his observations are well worth noting. For example, of the overture as a whole, he said “… Rossini has so enlarged the form that his overture becomes, in truth, a symphony in four very distinct parts, instead of the piece in two movements with which composers are ordinarily satisfied.” Examining the four sections, Berlioz found “… the first paints well the calm of a profound solitude… It is a poetic opening… being written only for five solo cellos, accompanied by the rest of the basses and double basses, the whole orchestra being put in action in the following piece – the storm.”
Continuing his analysis, Berlioz said, “The storm is succeeded by a pastoral scene of the greatest freshness – the melody of the English horn is delicious, and the badinage of the flute above this tranquil song is of a ravishing freshness and gaiety. We observe in passing that the triangle, which is struck pianissimo at intervals, is very much in place; it is the bell of the flocks peacefully grazing while the shepherds utter their joyous songs.”
About the final, and most familiar section of the overture, Berlioz enthused, and then defused his enthusiasm, saying: “This last part of the overture is treated with a brio, a verve, which always excites an audience, but it is entirely based on a rhythm outworn today… (but) despite the lack of originality in the theme and the rhythm, despite an abuse of the bass drum which is very disagreeable at certain moments, and the slightly vulgar use of that instrument always to strike the accented beats… it must be admitted that the piece as a whole is treated with an incontestable superiority…” Thank you for your kind words, Mr. Berlioz.
Ways to Listen
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Claudio Abbado and the London Symphony Orchestra: YouTube Score Video, Spotify
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Riku Okamoto and the Tacticato Orchestra: YouTube
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Leonard Slatkin and the Taipei Music Academy & Festival Orchestra: YouTube
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Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields: Spotify
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Antonio Pappano and the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia: Spotify
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Riccardo Chailly with the National Philharmonic Orchestra: Spotify
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Riccardo Muti and the Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano: Spotify
Discussion Prompts
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What are your favorite parts or moments in this work? What do you like about it, or what stood out to you?
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Do you have a favorite recording you would recommend for us? Please share a link in the comments!
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Have you ever performed this before? If so, when and where? What instrument do you play? And what insight do you have from learning it?
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What should our club listen to next? Use the link below to find the submission form and let us know what piece of music we should feature in an upcoming week. Note: for variety's sake, please avoid choosing music by a composer who has already been featured, otherwise your choice will be given the lowest priority in the schedule
Posted Nov 18, 2025, 3:38 PM UTC