Respighi Roman Trilogy
Respighi’s Roman spectacular benefits from fine SACD sound
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Ottorino Respighi
Genre:
Orchestral
Label: BIS
Magazine Review Date: 3/2011
Media Format: Hybrid SACD
Media Runtime: 64
Mastering:
Stereo
DDD
Catalogue Number: BIS-SACD1720

Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Fontane di Roma, 'Fountains of Rome' |
Ottorino Respighi, Composer
John Neschling, Conductor Ottorino Respighi, Composer São Paulo Symphony Orchestra |
Pini di Roma, 'Pines of Rome' |
Ottorino Respighi, Composer
John Neschling, Conductor Ottorino Respighi, Composer São Paulo Symphony Orchestra |
Feste romane, 'Roman Festivals' |
Ottorino Respighi, Composer
John Neschling, Conductor Ottorino Respighi, Composer São Paulo Symphony Orchestra |
Author: Edward Greenfield
The spectacular BIS recording in SACD brings out all the atmospheric qualities, as it does in the second and most popular work of the Trilogy, The Pines of Rome (1924). The opening movement, “The Pines of the Villa Borghese”, opens gloriously with a shimmering from the full orchestra, while the third of the four sections, “The Pines of the Janiculum”, introduces what was regarded as radical at the time, the sound of a nightingale singing, originally on an old 78rpm disc. The recording now is much more faithful, though on this disc the sound is too distant to make its full mark. The final section, “The Pines of the Appian Way”, involves heavy brass in illustrating the tramp of Roman legions.
The final work of the Trilogy, Roman Festivals (1928), is at once the longest, most ambitious yet least inspired of the three. Even so, in a brilliant performance such as this one, helped by spectacular sound, it is highly enjoyable. The first section illustrates gladiatorial combat in the Roman Circus, and the final section brings a riot of sound in “La Befana” (“The Epiphany”), with clashing rhythms one against the other, and with even a hint of a tarantella. It makes a splendid conclusion to a highly enjoyable disc.
From the days of LP even so fine a version of all three sections as that from Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestrta cannot compete against the claims of the finest of modern digital versions, as presented here, though Yan-Pascal Tortelier’s Chandos version is on balance even finer, if not on SACD.
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