Respighi
September 2021
The last CD recorded with Riccardo Chailly for Decca is dedicated to Respighi. It includes works as Pini di Roma; Aria for strings; Legend; In the evening; Ancient dances and arias for lute, Suite III, P. 172; for violin and orchestra; Fountains of Rome. A recording project that returns the complexity of the composer’s figure through two different sets of works: one, little known, young, the other of maturity, not coinciding with the famous trilogy. Thirty years of music are passed through: the entire Respighian path, from his training years to the three decades of maturity.
Respighi has earned eternal fame with his ‘Roman Triptych’ – the three works he wrote after settling permanently in Rome in 1913 as a composition teacher at the Accademia Santa Cecilia. Although the program notes of the CD constantly refer to a triptych – Respighi Triptychs is written above it in capitals – Chailly has opted for its own interpretation. He opens and closes with the opulent Roman successes, and for the middle part he chose one of Respighi’s most relevant works: one of the Antiche Danze ed Arie per il Liuto. A series of three suites for string orchestra, freely adapted to music from the Italian Renaissance and Baroque.
They are compact works with a quasi-symphonic structure in four movements, each of which is revealed to us as moved by an internal logic; we can find in them the influence of the Rimsky-Korsakov coloring, the impressionism of Debussy and his studies with Max Bruch.
The recording quality is great; however, some critics were a bit shocked by the deep density of the sound, even somewhat thick, and with predominant bass, might not favor a detailed listening.
The artist and the orchestra offer us a live drama, which perfectly matches the level of the composer’s brilliant orchestration abilities (especially in the handling of tonal color and the treatment of strings). The movements flow in a smooth natural succession, and that transitions between cinematic climaxes and passages of poetic beauty are organic. in ‘Pinos’, we will find ourselves immersed on an atmosphere of romantic nostalgia with a distinctive air of vivacity and a subtle refinement. We find technicolor and sonic opulence in “Fuentes”, but also evocation (Val Julia), poetry (Villa Medicis) and orgiastic atmosphere (Trevi).
It goes without saying that this music is just right for Chailly. The listeners will surely enjoy this wonderful recording which is a present for the ears of any music lover.
– Clara Horner
