Another Respighi review?* Yes, BUT, this disc includes music by Ottorini Respighi (1879-1936)that I like more than the famed set of Roman tone poems (Fountains, Pines, Festivals). I'm sure that if I were reviewing the Neville Marinner/Academy of St. Martin in the Fields recording, I would complain that the disc only has 38 minutes of music. This one with Tamas Vasary conducting the Bournemouth Sinfonietta has 26 more minutes of music--but, alas, of music that I skip when playing it.
The two 1927 pieces for small orchestra I mostly like, and the 1920 Adagio and variations for cello and orchestra is innocuous if uninspired. Raphael Wallfisch's cello sound is richly burnished and the last two minutes of yearning may touch many listeners. Respighi's 1918 setting of Shelley's "Sunset" is IMO tedious. Even if it were in the original English, the poem numbs my mind, so not knowing what the mezzo-soprano is singing disturbs me not at all. I also don't think that my lack of enthusiasm--or even interest--is the fault of mezzo Linda Finnie, whose voice and diction seem good. (Rather than second-rate Ravel imitation, I'd say "La Tramonto" is bad Berlioz imitation--Respighi generally sounds to me to be in French idioms.)
It is the other two pieces that I think might serve as a better introduction to Respighi than the Roman suites or the Suites on Ancient Airs and Dances.
Gli Uccelli (The Birds) might as well have a "di Roma" (of Rome) appended. After a prelude that has some of the themes from the four following movements riffing off an aria by Bernardo Pasquini (1637-1710), the four birds are dove, hen, nightingale, and cuckoo. The nightingale, like Shelly's (and Keats'!) poem is English in origin, "La Gallina" is a romantic reworking of a 1706 piece for harpsichord, violin and viola by Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764), and the cuckoo derives from a harpsichord work by Pasquini. Transcribing "cuckoo" sounds is easy, and they are unmistakable. Though my experience of hearing nightingales is limited, the fluting song is almost as obvious as the cuckoo's. The doves must not be mourning doves (which would be easy to transcribe). "La Colomba" is sad and there is something sounding like wing-beats along with the oboe plaint at the end. The hens seem in motion (pecking without any crowing rooster). This sprightly segment is my favorite. I'm not sure what the final alarum is (a fox sighted?).
The
Trittico Botticelliano (Three Botticelli Paintings) are all in the Uffizi Gallery in Firenze (Florence): "La primavera" (Spring), "L' adorazione dei Magi" (The Adoration of the Magi), and "La nascita di Venere" (The Birth of Venus), though Respighi (not borrowing from any baroque composers) conceived the project while visiting the National Gallery in Washington, D.C.
"La primavera" has more trilling that suggests birdsong on a spring morn The birds--or at least the orchestra--quiets down and there is some plangent woodwind writing amidst the mostly high-energy music Nothing profound, but pleasant enough.
"L' adorazione dei Magi" deconstructs and then orchestrates (the reconstructed?) hymn "O come, O come, Emmanuel," so the claim that the Botticelli Pictures is all original is bogus. There are some more flute flights and some Orientalist piano figuration and oboe seduction that I distrust but don't dislike.
"La nascita di Venere" has Debussyan evocation of gentle waves. I hope that Respighi did not lead his American patroness Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, to whom the piece is dedicated and who organized the premiere of it in Vienna, to fancy herself Venus rising on the half shell! For all its piano swirling, I rather like the crescendo that dies away (I have no idea what this is supposed to represent) about a minute before the end, which is a very soft set of piano arpeggios.
I'd have filled out the disk with the 1925 "Vetrate di chiesa" (Church Windows) rather than the earlier pieces, but then I wouldn't know what they sound like (and have a good recording of "Church Windows").
For the playing and for filling a disc and for beginning and ending with Respighi pieces I like more than dislike, I'm rounding up a 3.5 to a 4-star rating.
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© 2007, Stephen O. Murray
*Following closely on my reviews of the Cincinatti Symphony Orchestra recording of
Church Windows, etc. and the Berlin Philharmonic's of the
Pines and Fountains of Rome.
Tracks and timings
Gli Uccelli, Ste: I. Preludio: Allegro moderato 2:54
Gli Uccelli, Ste: II. La Colomba: Andante espressivo-Allegro 4:46
Gli Uccelli, Ste: III. La Gallina: Allegro vivace 2:47
Gli Uccelli, Ste: IV. L'Usignuolo: Andante mosso 4:59
Gli Uccelli, Ste: V. Il Cucu: Allegro 4:20
Il tramonto: Andante appassionato 15:49
Adagio con variazioni 10:28
Trittico Botticelliano: I. La primavera: Allegro vivace 5:32
Trittico Botticelliano: II. L' adorazione dei Magi: Andante lento 8:37
Trittico Botticelliano: III. La nascita di Venere: Allegro moderato 4:34
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