Here’s something interesting, not for how good it is but rather how good it isn’t. This concert overture, creatively titled by its composer “Concert Overture #1,” is a student work that makes for a nice and pleasant listen, but that’s about it. There’s no hint at all here of greatness to come from the composer, none of deeper musical thought at work. If this piece represented the height of its composer’s powers, that composer would be a forgotten name today.
However, this particular composer turned out to be a bit of a late-bloomer, and by the time his true abilities actually did manifest themselves, this composer ended up not only being one of the immortal greats of music, but the dominant force of Western artistic life in the second half of the 19th century. Not bad for a late-blooming Richard Wagner, eh?
Here’s Wagner’s Concert Overture No. 1. It’s a pleasant-enough work with some Beethovenian influence, and not a hint of Rheingold or Tristan und Isolde to be found.
It isn't particularly Wagnerian, but it's, as you say, pleasant in that late 19th century way