ALEXANDER REINAGLE (1756-1809):  Miscellaneous Overture in D, Occasional Overture in D, Overture in G, BENJAMIN CARR (1768-1831): Federal Overture, JAMES HEWITT (1770-1827): Medley Overture in D Minor/Major, New Medley Overture in C, New Federal Overture.

Description: This appears to be the entire surviving corpus of a genre called the "medley overture". Dating from 1787 to 1801, these are ten to twelve minute overtures which stitch together popular melodies (Yankee Doodle, the Marseillaise, Ça ira, The Irish Washerwoman, Oh dear, what can the matter be are a few of the more recognizable ones) with original introductions and transitions (and Hewitt also uses the Mozart D minor Piano Concerto in his Medley Overture); Reinagle concentrates on Scots-Irish folk-music in his shorter, two-part overtures. Odd at first hearing but then you adjust to the concept and realize that this represents an almost entirely forgotten early, native-produced American symphonic tradition (rescued by a Finnish orchestra, its French conductor and a Dutch musicologist, Bertil van Boer, who reconstructed all of the orchestrations from various types of existing manuscripts). Sinfonia Finlandia Jyväskylä; Patrick Gallois.