respighi Church windows brazilian impressions belkis, queen of Sheba metamorphoseon roman trilogy

philharmonia Orchestra geoffrey Simon yan pascal tortelier Imagno / AKG Images, London

Ottorino Respighi, c. 1935 Ottorino Respighi (1879 – 1936)

COMPACT DISC ONE

Vetrate di chiesa, P 150 (1925 – 26)*† 26:46 (Church Windows) Four Symphonic Impressions 1 I La fuga in Egitto (The Flight into Egypt) 5:37 2 II San Michele arcangelo (St Michael Archangel) 5:48 3 III Il mattutino di Santa Chiara (The Matins of St Clare) 5:31 4 IV San Gregorio Magno (St Gregory the Great) 9:38

Metamorphoseon modi XII, P 169 (1930)*‡ 25:37 Theme and Variations for Orchestra 5 Tema. Andante moderato – 1:48 6 Modus I. Moderato non troppo – 1:53 7 Modus II. Allegretto – 1:37 8 Modus III. Lento – 2:22 9 Modus IV. Lento espressivo – 2:38 10 Modus V. Molto vivace – 0:36 11 Modus VI. Vivo – 0:43 12 Modus VII. Cadenze – 6:38 13 Modus VIII. Andantino mosso – 1:21 14 Modus IX. Lento non troppo – 2:18

3 15 Modus X. Molto allegro – 0:41 16 Modus XI. Molto allegro – 0:51 17 Modus XII. Vivo non troppo 2:05

Feste romane, P 157 (1928)§ 24:24 18 I Circenses – 4:31 19 II Il giubileo – 6:36 20 III L’ottobrata – 7:41 21 IV La befana 5:35 TT 77:12

COMPACT DISC TWO

Fontane di Roma, P 106 (1915 – 16)§ 16:40 1 I La fontana di Valle Giulia all’alba – 4:39 2 II La fontana del Tritone al mattino – 2:44 3 III La fontana di Trevi al meriggio – 3:38 4 IV La fontana di Villa Medici al tramonto 5:38

Pini di Roma, P 141 (1923 – 24)§ 21:48 5 I I pini di Villa Borghese – 2:49 6 II Pini presso una catacomba – 6:33 7 III I pini del Gianicolo – 7:10 8 IV I pini della via Appia 5:15

4 Belkis, regina di Saba, P 177 (1934)*‡ 22:31 (Belkis, Queen of Sheba) Suite for Orchestra from the Complete Ballet, P 171 (1931) 9 I Il sogno di Salomone (The Dream of Solomon) 7:58 10 III Danza guerresca (War Dance) 2:51 11 II La danza di Belkis all’aurora (The Dance of Belkis at Dawn) 6:19 12 IV Danza orgiastica (Orgiastic Dance) 5:13

Impressioni brasiliane, P 153 (1928)*† 18:46 (Brazilian Impressions) Suite for Orchestra 13 I Notte tropicale (Tropical Night) 9:42 14 II Butantan (In a snake-garden near São Paulo) 4:50 15 III Canzone e danza (Song and Dance) 4:06 TT 80:14

Philharmonia Orchestra Raymond Ovens† • Christopher Warren-Green‡ leaders Leslie Pearson organ§ Geoffrey Simon* Yan Pascal Tortelier§

5 Yan Pascal Tortelier Respighi: Orchestral Works

Vetrate di chiesa, P 150 a constant source of musical inspiration. The The musical reputation of Ottorino Respighi first of his works to bear these ecclesiastical (1879 – 1936) rests principally on two influences was composed at Capri in the celebrated orchestral works, Fontane summer of that year and entitled Tre preludi di Roma (Fountains of Rome) and Pini di sopra melodie gregoriane, P 131 (Three Roma (Pines of Rome). To these can be Preludes on Gregorian Melodies). Elsa later added Feste romane (Roman Festivals), wrote that Respighi’s aim in writing music which conclude a ‘Roman Trilogy’ that has inspired by Gregorian Chorales was tended to eclipse many of his other, equally to recast those magnificent melodies in deserving compositions. Although the two a new language of sounds and free them works discussed here are not completely from the rigidly formal Catholic Liturgy of unknown, they are nevertheless rarely the Roman Gradual. performed, yet contain some of Respighi’s These Preludes, for piano, were published most evocative music. And despite their in 1922, and three years later Respighi different inspirational origins, they have in decided to orchestrate them, adding a common a quality found in much of the music further piece so as to make a four-movement of Respighi: an underlying thread of nostalgia, symphonic suite. The Respighis had a close which in the present case is for the distant friend named Claudio Guastalla (1880 – 1948), Italian past on the one hand, and for a visit to a professor of literature, who listened to South America on the other. the four pieces as the composer played In 1919, Respighi married one of his through them whilst they tried to come up former composition students, Elsa Olivieri- with a suitable title for this new orchestral Sangiacomo (1894 – 1996), who had made composition. Respighi’s first suggestion was a special study of Gregorian chant. Within Portali di tempio (Entrances to a Temple) – a few weeks of their marriage she had an idea which seemed ‘too colourless’ to introduced him to the world of plainsong and Guastalla, who proposed instead Vetrate this provided him for the rest of his life with di chiesa (Church Windows). This overall title

7 was immediately adopted, and it remained Archangel) was given, taken this time from only to provide suitable sub-titles for the the Revelation of St John the Divine (but individual movements, illustrating them with misattributed in the score to St Matthew): fanciful texts appropriate to those biblical or And a great battle was made in the religious scenes which might have appeared Heavens: Michael and his Angels fought on actual stained glass windows. with the dragon, and fought the dragon The slow and stately first movement, and his angels. But these did not prevail, with its constantly forward-moving and there was no more place for them in accompaniment, suggested to Guastalla Heaven. ‘the passing of a chariot beneath a brilliant, The main theme is announced Allegro starry sky’. What better, he said, than to call it impetuoso in the orchestral bass to a fearful, ‘La fuga in Egitto’ (The Flight into Egypt), and upward-rushing accompaniment, and is enlarging on a verse in St Matthew’s Gospel, followed by a second subject introduced he concocted an ‘anonymous’ attribution to on the horns and taken over by arpeggiated be inserted in the score: strings. A restatement of the opening theme ...the little caravan proceeded through subsides into a tranquil section in which the the desert in the starry night, carrying the principal melody is played at half tempo by an Treasure of the world. off-stage trumpet. After a shortened reprise Written in 5 / 4 time and composed in the of the second subject, Satan’s banishment quasi-oriental Phrygian mode, this is the from heaven is spectacularly realised by a fff most overtly ‘romantic’ of the four scenes, crash on the largest available tam-tam. both in its conception and in the heady The third ‘church window’ was to prove quality of its orchestration. more difficult than the others to interpret The original Preludes are by no means with a sub-text, as Guastalla felt that easy for the keyboard soloist to play, something essentially ‘mystical, pure, and and in transcribing the second of them convent-like’ was needed: Respighi particularly requires the utmost That little silver bell made me think of orchestral virtuosity. To Guastalla, this nuns in holy orders flocking like swallows tumultuous music suggested ‘a clash of to a birdcall. weapons – a battle in the skies’ and so the After he and Respighi had racked their brains title ‘San Michele arcangelo’ (Saint Michael trying to think of a suitably chaste saint,

8 the idea finally came to them: the episode a brief reference to some of the opening recounted in the thirty-fourth chapter of material, the brass take up the Gloria motif the Fioretti di San Francesco (Little Flowers and bring the whole work to a conclusion of of St Francis), which told how the ailing the utmost splendour. Such grandeur and and disconsolate St Clare, founder of the solemnity, Guastalla proclaimed, should Franciscan Order of Nuns, was depict St Gregory, the great sixth-century miraculously borne by the angels from her reformer of Roman Catholic church music, sickbed to the Church of St Francis, in order and the score duly carries the superscription: to be present at the entire Holy Service Ecce Pontifex Maximus!... Bless the Lord... of Matins. Sing the Hymn to God. Alleluia! This piece, ‘Il mattutino di Santa Chiara’ Whilst the Roman trilogy had consisted (The Matins of St Clare), finds Respighi’s of compositions specifically inspired by the musical talents at their most sensitive for, sights and sounds of the Eternal City, each as one Italian critic noted, with four linked and indivisible sections, it is full of intimate, meditative poetry, this new orchestral work of Respighi’s a translucent recollection of Gregorian featured separate and purely abstract melody, redolent of the cloister. pieces, each with its own construction. The scoring here is supremely delicate, Guastalla described as ‘shallow’ those who Respighi providing a perfectly refined simply bracketed Vetrate di chiesa with the balance of sonorities between winds and Roman tone poems and failed to notice the harp, bells and celesta. substantial poetic differences. And in view For the final piece, ‘San Gregorio Magno’ of the fact that the various titles were added (St Gregory the Great), a kind of Papal after the music was written, it remains to be Coronation in sound, Respighi wrote a noted with some amusement the statements massive fantasia on the Gloria from the Mass of those commentators who would have us of the Angels. After a solemn introduction believe that depicting the tolling of bells, the Gregorian the work was inspired by religious events chorale is first intoned on distant, muted depicted in stained glass windows in horns. The music rises to a great climax various churches in Italy. whereupon the main theme is suddenly Nothing, as we have seen, could have been reintroduced in an imposing organ solo. After further from the truth!

9 Impressioni brasiliane, P 153 The second piece, ‘Butantan’, recalls The score of Vetrate di chiesa, completed in a visit which the Respighis made to the 1926, was first performed in 1927, and in May Butantan Reptile Institute just outside São of that year the Respighis made their first Paulo, where thousands of snakes of every recital tour of Brazil, which concluded with variety are collected for the production of concerts in Rio de Janeiro where the composer serum. This ‘Snake Farm’ was founded at had to work hard with an orchestra not used the turn of the century and has long been a to playing symphonic music. Nevertheless, tourist attraction (the snakes are milked for such was his success that Respighi was the benefit of interested onlookers at various invited to return the following year, and as he times between 10 am and 4 pm, except had taken a great interest in the folk music of Monday mornings), whilst a notice reads: the country, he promised to bring a specially To Throw Stones at the Serpents is an composed five-movement Brazilian Suite. The Indication of Bad Character. European concert season of 1927 / 28 took Here the reptiles – poisonous and otherwise – Respighi on a hectic tour which left him little co-exist in their enclosures by sliding over time to fulfil his promise and he managed to one another in the grass, wriggling in the produce only three movements. He did so, water, or simply dozing in the trees. Respighi’s however, with considerable good humour and music graphically depicts these treacherous was later to say that he had written the music creatures with woodwinds which squeak ‘for fun and relaxation’. and crawl up and down the stave (the score Back in Rio in June, he gave the Impressioni is actually marked strisciante – meaning brasiliane (Brazilian Impressions) its first ‘slitheringly’) and as an added effect performance and had just as much difficulty the angry whirring of the rattlesnakes is with the orchestra as on his first trip. The reproduced by a tambourine played with side opening movement is an extended and deeply drum sticks. The macabre quotation of the atmospheric ‘nocturne’, ‘Notte tropicale’ Dies Irae from the Mass for the Dead shows (Tropical Night), with half-lit recollections of just how traumatic an experience Respighi’s dance rhythms and folksongs heard in the visit to Butantan really was. distance on a warm, tropical Brazilian evening, It is with some relief that Respighi turns made especially picturesque by the exotic away from the horrors of the snake-pit and charm of Respighi’s scoring. reverts in the third section, ‘Canzone e danza’

10 (Song and Dance), to the songs and dances should not ignore the series of large and of Brazil. Here is a recollection of Carnival unexpectedly sober abstract works’ of time, or a visit to some nightclub in which the Respighi’s later years, which show a much clientele are dancing the ‘samba’. A present- more serious style. Both categories of music day guidebook warns unwary visitors to São are represented here: a spectacular Suite Paulo to from a brilliantly scored ballet is coupled with have a good look round before sitting a virtuoso set of Orchestral Variations which down in one of the many nightspots as are without pictorial or literary influences and they are interspersed with gay bars and therefore ‘pure music’. These are two works transvestite shows among many of Respighi’s compositions that – though whether Respighi was bothered by reveal an unsuspected range and quality such things we do not know. However, the but which have been totally obscured by the throw-away ending of the ‘Canzone e danza’ success of his Roman trilogy. Their neglect is so deliciously final that one instinctively is inexplicable both in the concert hall and feels it could hardly have been followed with on record, where they now appear for the two further movements. As it stands, then, first time. the Impressioni brasiliane is a delightful and In 1931, Respighi began composing the colourful souvenir of a trip to South America, music for one of his most ambitious stage which – rattlesnakes apart – seems to have works: the full-scale epic ballet Belkis, regina been a highly enjoyable one. di Saba (Belkis, Queen of Sheba), which was to be mounted by Teatro alla Scala, Milan © Edward Johnson the following season. The exoticism of the biblical legend of Solomon and Sheba had Suite from ‘Belkis, regina di Saba’, P 177 long held a special fascination for him and he Respighi is justly famous as the most drew on two elements in telling the story in successful Italian composer of his time for his music: the Hebraic, in which he studied music of poetic and visual inspiration, which, and emulated the melodic characteristics as John Waterhouse notes in his New Grove of ancient Hebrew songs; and the Arabic, article on the composer, is ‘preoccupied in which he stressed oriental rhythms with with vivid orchestral colours’. However, as a vast assortment of native percussion Dr Waterhouse goes on to point out, ‘one instruments.

11 The ballet evoked the wondrous journey giving the part of Solomon to David Lichine, undertaken in the year 1000 B.C. by Belkis, the one of the finest young dancers of his Queen of Sheba, in response to an imperial generation. For the décor, Nicola Benois message from Solomon, the King of Israel. produced a stunning array of opulent The birds and the winds have told him that backcloths and grandiose sets, as well as the he is loved from afar by this beautiful young designs for more than 600 costumes, and a Queen of the South, so he sends for her to sumptuously decorative entertainment was come to his throne that he may render her thus devised. great honour and homage. Belkis travels The ballet was premiered with tremendous across the desert in a huge treasure-laden success on 23 January 1932 and received caravan with warriors and slaves, elephants high praise not only in the Italian press but and camels, and her union with Solomon is also abroad. In The New York Times, Raymond celebrated by tumultuous rejoicing. Hall wrote: The full eighty-minute ballet required Respighi has achieved a technical tour- an enormous orchestra, including such de-force: he strove mainly for colour and unconventional instruments as sitars and spectacle and has achieved his goal wind machines, a phalanx of off-stage brilliantly, immersing his score in vivid brass, a chorus, several vocal soloists, and oriental atmosphere from beginning to a narrator who related the legendary story end. As a lavish spectacle, Belkis, regina in verse. Respighi’s wife, Elsa, attended the di Saba represents one of the milestone rehearsals and wrote that achievements of this house. the score is dazzlingly rich and contains Two years later, Respighi extracted the many new and beautiful ideas. purely Orchestral Suite recorded here. The His literary collaborator, Claudio Guastalla, order of movements in the published Suite supplied the scenario by using an opera mainly follows the action of the ballet, but libretto on the subject, which he had once the present performance interchanges the fashioned from holy writ. The noted Russian two middle movements so as to heighten choreographer Léonide Massine arranged the overall musical and dramatic contrast. tableaux and dances of immense variety; for The first movement is entitled ‘Il sogno di the part of Belkis he engaged an excellent Salomone’ (The Dream of Solomon) and Persian ballerina, Leila Bederkhan, whilst comes from the opening scene in the torch-lit

12 harem of Solomon in Jerusalem. The brief utter savage war cries whilst brandishing brooding prelude, depicting his solitude as he long lances and dancing their fantastic gazes at a bright starry sky, is followed by a dance. solemn march episode: The next movement features the languid, The beautiful King enters, his bearing irregular rhythm of an Arab Drum and is entitled religious and majestic, lost in profound ‘La danza di Belkis all’aurora’ (The Dance of thoughts. Belkis at Dawn). It contains some of Respighi’s After an expressive cello solo, unison strings most sensual music and is an erotic picture of break in with passionate love music from the the first appearance of the Queen of Sheba in scene, later in the ballet, portraying the actual the ballet. She is seen at daybreak on a ruby- meeting between Belkis and Solomon: studded divan of green malachite, watched And when, raising her eyes, she recognises over by four black slaves, in the luxuriant that wise and mighty and beautiful King hanging gardens of Kitor. In the distance are whose call of love she has heard from the towers of the royal palace and further the ends of the earth, the young virgin, off is the Red Sea, coloured purple by the overcome by emotion, falls at his feet like a sunrise. little dead dove. Beautiful as the olive in the field and The ‘Danza guerresca’ (War Dance) which languishing for love of Solomon, Belkis follows takes music from two different sleeps her pure sleep. She awakens and, scenes in the ballet. The opening is a raunchy raising her hands to salute the light of the ‘Dance on the Drums’ which occurs during the world, dances barefoot in honour of the final scene of celebration: newly risen sun. Bronzed and near-naked young athletes run The last movement of the Suite constitutes on, rolling enormous drums onto which they the ballet’s finale – ‘Danza orgiastica’, an jump and dance, thundering out the rhythm ‘Orgiastic Dance’ marking the union of Solomon with frantic feet. and Sheba. Raymond Hall wrote: This section calls for ‘large and small War The final orgy of the thousand-odd Drums’ and it leads straight into an Allegro people on the stage at La Scala works up impetuoso in which Solomon’s negro warriors, into a deafening tumult of sound and a by way of salutation on the Queen of Sheba’s paroxysm of rhythm that finds a par only arrival in Jerusalem, in the Dionysian climaxes of the Sacre

13 du printemps. Respighi has pounded out of composers by Serge Koussevitzky to this uproar with an insistence little short mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Boston of sardonic fury... At the Scala première Symphony Orchestra in 1930. During the it brought the audience to its feet in a celebrations, Koussevitzky also gave the frenzy of excitement that burst into an premières of Stravinsky’s Symphonie de interminable ovation. psaumes, Hindemith’s Konzertmusik for The setting is Solomon’s marvellous palace Strings and Brass, Honegger’s Symphony garden of cedars and palm trees, in which a No. 1, Roussel’s Symphony No. 3, Prokofiev’s great feast of rejoicing is prepared: Symphony No. 4, and several American A mighty horde of young men and girls, works, including Howard Hanson’s Romantic warriors and slaves of every race and Symphony. colour, rises up in an orgiastic dance, Respighi was no stranger to Boston letting loose a mighty clamour of laughter audiences: he had already conducted the and greetings. And then, at the peak of orchestra in 1927 and was often championed the furore, two high thrones gradually by Koussevitzky himself, who had premièred become visible in the distance, and seated Vetrate di chiesa that same year and duly majestically upon them are King Solomon introduced Metamorphoseon on 7 November and the Queen of Sheba – motionless as 1930. The following day, the Boston Traveler idols of gold. wrote: Respighi’s Theme and Variations emerged Metamorphoseon modi XII, P 169 as a colossal achievement... His is a The other work discussed here is rare genius for melody, an absolute Metamorphoseon modi XII – ‘Tema e Variazioni technical command an above all, brilliant per Orchestra’ – a forbidding title which orchestration. Altogether the new work is a disguises music of real beauty, yet which masterly composition. completely excludes the ‘picturesque’ At first sight, it would appear that element so often found in Respighi’s work. Respighi has written another of his works There is, in short, not a pine tree or a fountain in ecclesiastical style, as each of the in sight! twelve variations is numbered as though in The piece was one of several which were reference to a mediaeval mode. But in fact commissioned from an international range he uses the word ‘mode’ in its meaning of a

14 ‘manner’ or ‘way’ of transforming a theme, and the first theme, the overall musical character although the music does have a quasi-modal lightened by tripping woodwind and pizzicato character, it is actually rooted pretty firmly in accompaniments. Modus III: This oboe-led B flat minor. And in writing a work especially variation (also based on the first theme) is a for one of the world’s greatest ensembles, fervent lament with tragic rising and falling Respighi particularly sought to exploit the figurations in the lower strings. virtuosity of each soloist or instrumental Modus IV: Respighi reverts to his second group, so that the result became a brilliant major theme for a variation which provides a ‘concerto for orchestra’ in the format of a superb example of the kind of sonority which theme and variations. this master orchestrator could conjure from Interestingly, although Respighi uses a instrumental forces. This section – marked basic ABA pattern for the variations – so that Con grande espressione – occupies the same calm outer sections flank briefer outbursts of position in Metamorphoseon as ‘Nimrod’ stormier music throughout – he does in fact does in Elgar’s Enigma Variations, except that employ two major themes, not one. The first Elgarian nobility is here replaced by music of Tema is sonorously stated at the outset by the impassioned tragedy, which reaches a brass- full string orchestra. A counter-melody on the laden climax before dying away to a series of clarinet provides material which will be heard fateful crashes on the tam-tam. again in various guises throughout the work. The same secondary theme is heard in The Poco più mosso middle section features the two scherzo variations which follow, a rising ‘motto’ in the lower registers of the in which the metre constantly changes orchestra, which forms the basis of the more back and forth between triple to duple time. dramatic central episodes in the succeeding Modus V: The clarinet has a brilliant solo to an variations. accompaniment brightened by glockenspiel Modus I: Undulating strings introduce and piccolo. Modus VI: The whole orchestra the second of the work’s two major themes, is put through its paces in a display-piece heard first in the woodwinds and later – after variation in which the theme appears in the the contrasting middle section – in the bass line. unusual combination of solo cello and first Modus VII: This extraordinary section violins in unison. Modus II: A solo viola, in particularly caught the audience’s ears duet with the cor anglais, plays a variant of at the première as it consists entirely of

15 accompanied cadenzas. The featured solo a resplendent brass chorale, complete with instruments – several of which make more organ accompaniment, bringing the whole than one appearance – are harp, cello, violin, work to a jubilant conclusion in B flat major. viola, horn, bassoon, flute, clarinet, oboe, and © Edward Johnson bass-clarinet. Modus VIII: Respighi brings back his principal opening theme for a delightful Roman trilogy serenade in the style of an intermezzo with There is a certain irony in the fact that the a quirky Prokofiev-like key change from best-known works by Ottorino Respighi A to B major, and, like the other variations, (excepting his arrangements of music by a more intense central episode. Modus IX: other composers) should have linked his High muted pianissimo strings usher in the name so indissolubly to Rome. Like most first major theme whilst a few bars of the people with more than a cursory knowledge second are heard in counterpoint on the of the Eternal City, he did eventually fall harp. After several windswept moments, the under its spell, but it was a slow and often tranquillity of the opening reasserts itself, uncomfortable process. When he arrived in and descending chords lead straight into the the capital from his native Bologna in 1913 exuberant finale. (to take up his appointment as Professor of This consists of the last three variations, Composition at the Liceo di Santa Cecilia), linked together without pause, all based on he felt intimidated rather than inspired by Respighi’s first theme. Modus X: The music its grandeur and the awesome presence of launches into a short yet confident five-in its past. He found his earliest solace in the a-bar section with deft interplay between beauty and timeless serenity of Rome’s many winds and pizzicato strings. Modus XI: The fountains (‘the very voice of this city’, he later entry of the horns, upward-rushing scales on wrote), and before the year was out he had the violins, and a time change to 4 / 4, signal conceived the idea of enshrining them in a the onset of the penultimate variation, the symphonic poem. virtuosity of the writing adding to the headlong excitement of the music. Modus XII: A change Fontane di Roma of tempo heralds the brilliant coda in which Whatever the joy of its conception, however, Respighi transforms his principal theme into the gestation of Fontane di Roma (Fountains

16 of Rome) was slow and arduous. It was not to the pealing of trumpets across the until three years later, in 1917, that the piece radiant surface of the water, there passes was unveiled – not, as originally planned, by Neptune’s chariot, drawn by seahorses and Arturo Toscanini but by a relatively obscure followed by a train of sirens and tritons. conductor, one Antonio Guarnieri (1880 – 1952). The procession then vanishes, while faint Nor was the occasion all that Respighi might trumpet blasts resound in the distance. have wished. The press damned the work with The hours of dusk now approach, and to the faint praise (predictably, the orchestration sounds of the fountain at the Villa Medici was admired) and the audience treated the are added the tolling of evening bells, the composer to a chorus of boos, hisses, and twittering of birds, and the rustle of wind in catcalls. How much of this was attributable the leaves of the trees. As the piece draws to to the ‘efforts’ of Signor Guarnieri is difficult an end, so does the day and we are left with to say, but when at last Toscanini did conduct the illusory silence of the night. the work, on 11 March 1918, it scored a resounding success, and from that day to this Pini di Roma it has enjoyed a popularity accorded to few Some seven years were to pass before twentieth-­century scores. Respighi returned symphonically to Rome, Although played without a break, the and when he did, in 1923 – 24, now celebrating piece falls into four distinct sections, each the city’s famous pines, he lavished on it depicting a particular fountain at a particular all the instrumental colour of which he was time of day. The first, inspired by the Giulia so consummate a master. He called on a Valley fountain at daybreak, paints a pastoral vast orchestra, including a large percussion landscape in which the composer imagines section, harp, celesta, piano, organ, six droves of cattle ‘disappearing into the fresh flugelhorns (standing in for the trumpets of damp mists of a Roman dawn’. With the sun an ancient Roman army) – and a gramophone, fully risen we pass on to a vision of ‘The Triton disgorging the song of a nightingale. At the Fountain in the Morning’, in which a raucous first performance of this new symphonic blast from the horns calls up a procession of poem there was an unwelcome reminder of naiads and tritons. As the sun approaches the reception accorded its predecessor on its its full height we advance to the fountain of premiere. But the boos and hisses provoked by Trevi where, the work’s opening section quickly subsided

17 with the sudden hush of the second, and to have exhausted his preoccupation with at the end of the performance the final bars cinemascopic spectaculars. With this work the were drowned by a spontaneous explosion of Cecil B. De Mille of music hung up his spurs (or applause which banished all thoughts of earlier sandals?) and turned to the contemplation of disturbances. smaller forms and forces. It follows the same As in the case of its elder sibling, each of the pattern as its predecessors and its orchestral four sections of Pini di Roma (Pines of Rome) extravagance has raised more than a few evokes a different venu e. In the first, children pious eyebrows. To another large percussion play at being soldiers in the pine groves of the section, it adds a harp, a piano (this time Villa Borghese, while the second transports us manned by two players), an organ – and the to the coniferous shade of the entrance of an humble if indelicate mandolin. In fulfilling his ancient catacomb, from the depths of which intention comes the sound of mournful psalm singing. to summon up visions and evocations of With the third, night falls, and in the moonlight Roman festivals by means of the maximum piercing the shadows of the pines of the orchestral sonority and colour, Janiculum, our gramophonic nightingale takes the composer leaves so little to the imagination wing. As the day dawns, we find ourselves that further verbal elucidation would seem to beneath the pines of the Appian Way, where be superfluous. Suffice it to say that the titles the composer experiences of the four sections are ‘Circenses’ (Circuses), ‘Il a fantastic vision of bygone glories: trumpets giubileo’ (The Jubilee), ‘L’ottobrata’ (The October sound, and in the brilliance of a newly risen Festival), and ‘La befana’ (The Epiphany). sun, a consular army bursts forth towards Goblets at the ready? All right then. the Sacred Way, mounting in triumph to © Jeremy Siepmann the Capitol.

Feste romane Renowned throughout the world thanks to its Respighi supplied the final chapter of his tours and extraordinary recording legacy, the Roman trilogy some four years later, in 1928. Philharmonia Orchestra is the UK’s foremost Feste romane (Roman Festivals) proved to musical pioneer, leading the field for the be the last and most lavish of his large- quality of its playing and for its innovative scale symphonic canvasses and appears approach to audience development,

18 residencies, music education, and global A student of Herbert von Karajan, Rudolf outreach. Under Esa-Pekka Salonen, its Kempe, Hans Swarowsky, and Igor Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor, and Markevitch, and a major prize winner at the collaborating with the world’s most sought- first John Player International Conductors’ after artists, the Orchestra has secured Competition, the Australian Geoffrey Simon is a place at the heart of British musical life. resident in London where he has conducted Committed to presenting the same quality the London Philharmonic, London Symphony, live music making in venues throughout Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic, London the country as it brings to London and the Chamber, and English Chamber orchestras. great concert halls of the world, it has the Internationally, he has appeared with greatest claim of any orchestra to be the orchestras throughout Western Europe, UK’s National Orchestra. In 1995 it launched North America, and Australia, as well as in a much admired UK and International Israel, Russia, China, and Japan, Die Presse in Residency Programme and during the Vienna describing him as ‘a born conductor, 2012 / 13 season not only performs more than whose every gesture expresses music’. He thirty-five concerts at Southbank Centre’s has served as Music Director of the Albany Royal Festival Hall, but also celebrates its Symphony Orchestra in New York, Australian sixteenth year as Resident Orchestra of De Sinfonia in London, Bloomington Symphony Montfort Hall in Leicester and its twelfth year Orchestra in Indiana, Orquestra Simfònica de as Orchestra in Partnership at The Anvil in les Illes Balears ‘Ciutat de Palma’ in Mallorca, Basingstoke; it also enters the second year and Sacramento Symphony Orchestra in of its residencies at the new Marlowe Theatre California, and is Music Director Emeritus of in Canterbury and the Three Choirs Festival. the Northwest Mahler Orchestra in Seattle. Under Salonen, the Philharmonia Orchestra His virtuoso twenty-cello ensemble The gave a Beethoven Cycle at the Bonn London Cello Sound has performed live Beethovenfest in October 2012, undertook a for H.M. The Queen and H.R.H. The Duke of tour of the US in November, which featured Edinburgh and will tour Switzerland and a residency at Berkeley, California and South Korea in mid-2013. He represents Arts performances at Disney Hall, Los Angeles Global, a Foundation for Emerging Artists, and Lincoln Center, New York, and in February based in London, Montreux, and New York, as 2013 toured Japan. www.philharmonia.co.uk Consultant for Classical Special Projects, and

19 is a jury member for Young Concert Artists, Symphony Orchestra (2005 – 08), and Principal the Concert Artists Guild, and Australian Conductor of the São Paulo Symphony Music Foundation. Geoffrey Simon has made Orchestra (2009 – 11). He is also Principal forty-five recordings for a number of labels, Guest Conductor at the Royal Academy of including twelve for Chandos Records, Music in London. His long association with and in 1990 founded his own label, Cala Chandos Records has resulted in an extensive Records, which has attracted interest among catalogue of recordings, notably with the instrumentalists worldwide. Ulster Orchestra and BBC Philharmonic, which includes award-winning cycles of Yan Pascal Tortelier enjoys a distinguished orchestral works by Debussy, Ravel (featuring career as a guest conductor of prestigious his own orchestration of Ravel’s Piano Trio), orchestras throughout Europe, North Franck, Roussel, and Dutilleux. He has also America, Asia, and Australia. Having begun conducted critically acclaimed recordings his musical career as a violinist and pursued of repertoire by composers ranging from general musical studies with Nadia Boulanger, Hindemith and Kodály to Lutosławski and he studied conducting with Franco Ferrara. Karłowicz. Most recently Yan Pascal Tortelier From 1974 to 1983 he was Associate Conductor has recorded Ravel’s Piano Concertos of the Orchestre national du Capitole de coupled with Debussy’s Fantaisie with Toulouse. Subsequent positions have included the pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet and the Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and a disc of Ulster Orchestra (1989 – 92), Chief Conductor works by Florent Schmitt with the soprano of the BBC Philharmonic (1992 – 2003), Susan Bullock and the São Paulo Symphony Principal Guest Conductor of the Pittsburgh Orchestra and Choir.

20 Jonathan Rose Jonathan

Geoffrey Simon Also available

Respighi Ancient Airs and Dances • Berceuse • Aria CHAN 9415

22 Also available

Respighi La Boutique fantasque • La pentola magica • Prelude and Fugue CHAN 10081

23 Also available

Respighi Preludio, corale e fuga • Burlesca • Rossiniana • Five Études-tableaux CHAN 10388

24 Also available

Strauss • Respighi Violin Sonatas CHAN 10749

25 You can now purchase Chandos CDs or download MP3s online at our website: www.chandos.net

For requests to license tracks from this CD or any other Chandos discs please find application forms on the Chandos website or contact the Finance Director, Chandos Records Ltd, direct at the address below or via e-mail at [email protected].

Chandos Records Ltd, Chandos House, 1 Commerce Park, Commerce Way, Colchester, Essex CO2 8HX, UK. E-mail: [email protected] Telephone: + 44 (0)1206 225 200 Fax: + 44 (0)1206 225 201

www.facebook.com/chandosrecords www.twitter.com/chandosrecords

26 Steinway Model D concert grand piano provided and maintained by Steinway & Sons, London (Roman trilogy)

Recording producer Brian Couzens Sound engineer Ralph Couzens Assistant engineers Bill Todd (Vetrate di chiesa, Impressioni brasiliane), Philip Couzens (Metamorphoseon modi XII, Suite from Belkis, regina di Saba), and Ben Connellan (Roman trilogy) Editors Brian Couzens (Vetrate di chiesa, Impressioni brasiliane), Ralph Couzens (Metamorphoseon modi XII, Suite from Belkis, regina di Saba), and Ben Connellan (Roman trilogy) Mastering Jonathan Cooper Recording venue All Saints’ Church, Tooting, London; 17 and 18 January 1984 (Vetrate di chiesa, Impressioni brasiliane), 21 and 22 January 1985 (Metamorphoseon modi XII, Suite from Belkis, regina di Saba), & 15 and 16 April 1991 (Roman trilogy) Front cover Stained glass window (c. 1287 – 88), Siena Cathedral, designed by Duccio di Buoninsegna (c. 1255 / 60 – c. 1318 / 19) and Cimabue (Benvenuto di Giuseppe, c. 1240 – 1302), showing the death, assumption, and coronation of the Virgin, photograph © Peter Zelei / iStockphoto Back cover Photograph of Geoffrey Simon by Jonathan Rose Design and typesetting Cassidy Rayne Creative (www.cassidyrayne.co.uk) Booklet editor Finn S. Gundersen Publishers G. Ricordi SpA (Roman trilogy) p 1984, 1985, and 1991 Chandos Records Ltd This compilation p 2013 Chandos Records Ltd Digital remastering p 2013 Chandos Records Ltd c 2013 Chandos Records Ltd Chandos Records Ltd, Colchester, Essex CO2 8HX, England Country of origin UK

27 RESPIGHI: ORCHESTRAL WORKS – Philharmonia Orchestra / Simon / Tortelier CHAN 241-45 England • Records Ltd Records Ltd Records Ltd Records 2013 Chandos 2013 Chandos Essex • Chandos Records Ltd Chandos Records 2013 Chandos Records Ltd 2013 Chandos Records Colchester c CHAN 241-45 1984, 1985, and 1991 Chandos p This compilation p Digital remastering p Digital remastering 2-disc set 26:46 25:37 24:24 16:40 21:48 22:31 18:46 tt 77:12 tt 80:14 leaders

‡

(1879 – 1936) *‡

*†

*‡ (1930) *†

§ DIGITAL

(1934 ) §

§ (1925 – 26) (1915 – 16) § (1928)

(1923 – 24) § * CHANDOS -green warren • Christopher † organ (Church windows) (Church Sheba) of queen (belkis, (brazilian impressions) yan pascal tortelier pascal yan philharmonia Orchestra Ovens raymond leslie pearson Simon geoffrey COmpaCt diSC two COmpaCt respighi ottorino diSC One COmpaCt vetrate di chiesa, p 150 di chiesa, vetrate p 169 xii, modi metamorphoseon p 157 feste romane, p 106 di roma, fontane p 141 pini di roma, p 177 di Saba, regina belkis, p 153 (1928) brasiliane, impressioni

4 4 8 17 21 12 15 ------1 5 1 5 9 18 13

RESPIGHI: ORCHESTRAL WORKS – Philharmonia Orchestra / Simon / Tortelier CHAN 241-45