As I wrote in my first review of a Respighi disc, the composition by Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936) that remains firmly rooted in the repertory of American symphony orchestra is "Pini di Roma" (Pines of Rome). Although best remembered for his three Roman tone poems (Pines, Fountains, Festivals), Respighi's music sounds more French than Italian to me. That is, instead of sounding like Verdi or Puccini, it sounds like the shimmering atmospheric music of Ravel, Debussy, particularly when they were trying to sound Spanish (D's "Iberia", R's "Escales"--and Rimsky Korsakov (Capriccio Espagnol and Scherezade).

Respighi studied with R-K and played viola in the Imperial Theater in Saint Petersburg directed by R-K (1900-03). Respighi also attended lectures in Berlin by Max Bruch (Scottish Fantasy) and in his travels met Ravel, Richard Strauss, Jean Sibelius, et al. Respighi's tone poems are much lighter than Strauss's. Some called Respighi's pastiches "new old music." He drew heavily on obscure (even now with the massive expansion of recordings of old music) baroque music, Gregorian chants and other pre-baroque music (most notably Monteverdi), spinning their tunes and some of their harmonies into the rainbow of colors that a modern orchestra could provide. The results ("vulgarization" in the opinion of many even before the "original instruments" purism became a movement) are akin to what Leopold Stokowski did to romanticize Bach, Ravel's "Le Tombeau de Couperin" (1917) and "Menuet antique" (1930), Stravinsky's "Pulcinella" (1920-) and "Apollo" (1928), "The Rake's Progress" (1951), Prokofiev's First "Classical" Symphony (1917), Francis Poulenc's Les Biches," (1923), Concert champêtre (1928), "Suite Française" (1935) and "Les Biches," (1923), etc.

The Deutsche Gramophone recording of the Berlin Philharmonic (an awe-inspiring ensemble) conducted by Herbert von Karajan in 1973 (Antiche) and 1978 was much praised when it was released. I can't say that I remember the recording my mother had on vinyl of Fritz Reiner conducting "Pines." That recording still has champions, as does the recording by Eugene Ormandy (which I've never heard, though the music seems well-suited to the "Philadelphia sound").

Especially the final antiquity (orchestration of Lodovico Roncalli's 1692 Passacaglia) sounds overemphatic (milked) in the manner of Stokowski's Bach, but this may be what Respighi intended. I guess it brings the disc to an emphatic end--though the Technicolor ancient Roman extravaganza music that ends "Pines" (Appian Way) also has a big finish.

The order of tracks is chronological..

Fontanes di Roma (1914-16) provided Respighi's contemplation of four Roman fountains at the hour when they are most in harmony with the surrounding scenery," according to Respighi (whatever that may mean!). The first movement "La fontana di Valle Giulia all'Alba" (a fountain I don't recall) is supposed to be a dawn scene with cattle passing. I don't hear anything that conjures "fountain" to me, though I can hear what may be cattle wandering by in the soft (syrupy) movement. "La fontana del Tritone al mattino" show Naiads and Tritons dancing in the morning light, with gods and goddesses blowing conch shells (represented by French horns). This movement sounds more like the exuberant Bernini fountain. The most famous Roman fountain is the setting of the next movement. "La fontana di Trevi al meriggio" has a triumphal procession of Neptune's chariots. The music fades in volume (and away from bombast) toward the end of the movement and the sun is fading in the more melancholic music linked to "La fontana di Villa Medici al tramonto."

Pini di Roma (Pines of Rome, 1923-1924) begins festively (like bad Ravel). I guess that it could fit music playing as children frolicked in the woods of the Borghese Gardens. But where are the trees in the music?

The same question arises for the second movement, "Pini presso una catacomba." There are low-register instruments conjuring the subterranean catacombs in Campagna, but trees don't grow in the catacombs. The last part would not be out of place in a movie about heroic early Christians, slain by the end

"I pini del Gianicolo" is set at night, set near the temple of the two-faced god Janus on the Janiculum hill, is a nocturne (perhaps with some moonlight to see the pines?) The night is New Year's Eve (an occasion for Janus to look back and look forward) and there is a nightingale.

The sun is rising as ancient Roman legions march along the Appian Way toward the Capitol. The trees seem irrelevant (except as a place for a nightingale to sit?) in ""I pini della Via Appia," too. The triumphalist ending is also very Technicolor epic (written before Technicolor or movies with recorded sound) with organ and cymbals and a lot of brass.

The third of Respighi's Ancient Airs and Dances Suite (1932) arranges what were originally lute and guitar songs by Besard, Lodovico Roncalli, Santino Garsi da Parma and anonymous (and possibly made-up) composers. The orchestral coloration at which Respighi was so proficient was stripped away, to music for strings. (The Berlin strings are resplendent, as one would expect). The most substantial--a suite within the suite--is the second movement, based on a sequence of seven pieces by Besard. I've already mentioned the bombastic finale.

The "Ancient Airs and Dances Suite" is mostly innocuous, though I'm puzzled that it instead of "Roman Festivals" is on the disc (with all three of the ancient pastiches on another one). But "Festivals" is on the Cincinatti recording I content_395585425028, so that I have more pieces on two discs (actually, three by the Chandos one led off by "Gli Icelli" ("The Birds," which could easily enough have been titled "Birds of Rome," 1927) with no overlaps.

Ambivalent Conclusions

Except perhaps those with diabetic ears, I can't imagine anyone being harmed by this recording. The orchestral playing seems perfect. I don't think that I need "plot" (and there is more in the way of "program" for the Pines and Fountains than for most concert music), but even variegated coloring atmospherics is not enough to sustain my interest, so I will not be playing this recording again any time soon. I'd rate the music as sub-3, but for those who enjoy Respighi and necoclassical music, this is surely an above-average performance and recording.

Oh, yes, in answer to my title question, I think that Respighi sounded very retrograde to modernists of the 1920s, although a number of them followed him into neoromantic mining of music that was unplayed and for all practical purposes unknown. I think he probably deserves some credit for stimulating listeners to seek out "the real thing" (chimera though that is!). I don't think he was much of a composer, but was a great orchestrator. I think that Ravel and Rimsky-Korsakov were also great orchestrators and as composers were (usually) superior to Respighi.

------

© 2007, Stephen O. Murray



Tracks and timing

Fontane di Roma 2. La fontana del Tritone al mattino : vivo 2:42
Fontane di Roma 3. La fontana di Trevi al meriggio : allegro moderato - allegro vivace - largamente 4:02
Fontane di Roma 4. La fontana di Villa Medici al tramonto : andante 5:55

Pini di Roma 1. I pini di Villa Borghese : allegretto vivace 2:54
Pini di Roma 2. Pini presso una catacomba : lento 6:59
Pini di Roma 3. I pini del Gianicolo : lento 6:42
Pini di Roma 4. I pini della Via Appia : tempo di Marcia 5:22

Antiche danze ed arie per liuto III 1. Anon. - Italiana Andantino 3:39
Antiche danze ed arie per liuto III 2. Besard - Arie di corte, Andante cantabile 8:21
Antiche danze ed arie per liuto III 3. Anon. - Siciliana, Andantino 3:22
Antiche danze ed arie per liuto III 4. Roncalli - Passacaglia, Maestoso-Vivace 4:48
Fontane di Roma 1. La fontana di Valle Giulia all'alba : andante mosso 4:13

Total: 59:02




Recommended: No

Great Music to Play While: Going to Sleep