Of course, Amilcare Ponchielli is known primarily, and perhaps exclusively, as a composer of operas, and even, if you are not a great fan of the genre, of one opera, La Gioconda. But the only music of his that I’ve reviewed so far is his instrumental and chamber music, “Musique pour mon salon“, on Accord 149170 or 220682 (recorded in 1979, original CD publication 1986), with performers around pianist Gérard Wyss. Very operatic in fact, whereby you sense that the piano accompaniment is in fact the draft for an orchestral accompaniment – but light-fare opera, going more for charm than pathos, Rossini rather than Verdi, although pathos and lyricism are not entirely absent. Not substantial, but entertaining