Gioacchino Rossini – Overture "La Gazza Ladra" (The Thieving Magpie)
(34 pages, 15 €)
The overture to Giacchino Rossini's opera William Tell in the organ arrangement by the American composer Dudley Buck was one of my favorite organ pieces for several years, often an effective beginning to an organ concert. Finally, it found an ideal sound realization in my SACD recording "Variations on America", recorded on the large Walcker-Skinner organ in the Methuen Music Hall (Massachusetts, www.mmmh.org ).
Years later, when I heard the overture to the opera La Gazza Ladra (The Thieving Magpie), it was immediately clear to me that I had to arrange it for organ as well.
Like Dudley Buck I had to transpose it in order to make it playable on the organ keyboard (from E major to D major).
Even just practicing it is a great pleasure.
(Dr. Rudolf Innig)