The trilogy of Respighi's Roman symphonic poems makes a generous coupling, but till now on LP it has meant making a break in Roman Festivals between sides. The first big difference this time is that the EMI engineers have squeezed both the Pines and Fountains on to the first side (with a total timing of 37'36'') leaving the whole of Side 2 for the Roman Festivals, The most brazen of a brazen trio of works, not to say the most vulgar. It is Muti's achievement to flout any vulgarity, defiantly making it an orchestral bockbuster which will no doubt make many a sensitive listener wince, but which has the Philadelphia Orchestra playing with a captivating flair and swagger amid the bombast. I cannot remember any other recent recorded performance so clearly 'over-the-top', but Muti, the hot-blooded Italian, totally justifies it. I suspect that this is the piece which he relishes most of the three, whether on the dashing accelerando which in ''Circenses'' signals the throwing of Christians to the lions, the yearning beauty of the mandolin music of the second movement, the fizzing jollity of ''L'ottobrata'' or the frenzy of jubilation in the final ''La befana'', jazzy and jolly with the pop waltz music intruding outrageously but in a way to make you laugh.
Dutoit (Decca) is also a red-blooded interpreter of Respighi, but in all three works Muti's performances bring greater extremes of dynamic and speed, and so often in his phrasing he reveals his innate feeling for Italian popular melody which lies behind so much of Respighi's material. The playing of the Philadelphia Orchestra is past praise, and the recording is quite the finest that HMV—using the new venue discovered last year, the Memorial Hall [see ''News & Views'', June 1984, page 7—Ed.]—have produced in Philadelphia, full and rounded as well as brilliant and detailed, with an extreme dynamic range. When even the LP rivals and even outshines Decca's superb Montreal sound, I keenly look forward to the CD version.'