Ottorino Respighi is one of those composers whose reputations rest unduly on a particular work, or group of compositions.
What are Respighi's most famous works?
In his case it is the so-called ‘Roman Trilogy’ with which he is perennially associated. These three separately conceived orchestral pieces were penned between 1916 and 1928, his prime creative period. The popularity of the Trilogy has often been attributed to Respighi’s undeniable brilliance as an orchestrator. He had an uncanny ability to conjure a kaleidosocopic range of crowd-pleasing colours and impressions from his instrumental palette.
The composer’s numerous detractors contend that there is actually little more than superficial thrills and spills in the Trilogy’s music. It is, they say, mainly sound and fury, signifying nothing deeper. This allegation is given a certain credence by performances which crudely over-emphasise certain moments. These include the gargantuan crescendo depicting a Roman legion’s triumphant procession along the Appian Way at the conclusion of Pines of Rome, the second composition in the cycle.
More sensitive interpretations of the Trilogy, however, reveal a composer of refined sensibilities, capable of exquisite delicacy of expression. Here was a man deeply attuned to the immense richness of his nation’s historical and artistic heritage.
Where was Respighi from?
That's one reason why Respighi, a proud Bolognese, was attracted to the Italian capital as a source of cultural inspiration. Respighi had moved to Rome in 1913 (in his mid-thirties) to teach composition at the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia. Fountains of Rome, the first part of the Trilogy, gestated almost immediately.
In writing Fountains of Rome Respighi’s prime motivation was to render the profound aesthetic impression made on him, the ‘sentiments and visions’ inspired, as he put it, by four exquisitely sculpted Roman fountains. These were ‘contemplated at the hour in which their character is most in harmony with the surrounding landscape, or their beauty appears most impressive to the observer’.
It is worth emphasising Respighi’s own description of what he was aiming to achieve in Fountains of Rome. After all, his reputation has never quite emerged unsullied from one fact. Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini was a great admirer of the composer’s music.
If Mussolini admired the Trilogy, the argument runs, must there not necessarily be something rather unsavoury about the music? Are not Respighi’s own political affiliations and sympathies called into question as a consequence?
Conspiracy theories linking Respighi and fascism draw further sustenance from passages such as the pulverising peroration to the Appian Way movement in Pines of Rome. Here, the implacable tread of the marching consular army to some ears uncomfortably recalls the brutal militarism of Mussolini’s dictatorship.
Why did Respighi write Pines of Rome?
Again, it is salutary to note Respighi’s own explanation of why he wrote Pines of Rome. This was to ‘use nature as a point of departure, in order to recall memories and visions’ of the Eternal City. It would present ‘a fantastic vision of bygone glories’. His perspective, though proudly patriotic, is that of an enthralled observer of his country’s history. It is not intended to be aggressively jingoistic or rawly political.
On the contrary, it was intensely personal. Tellingly, Respighi’s wife Elsa said that Pines of Rome was ‘one of the compositions in which the Maestro was most emotionally involved’. It makes as much sense to castigate Respighi for expressing such feelings musically as it does to criticise Elgar for composing the ‘Pomp and Circumstance’ marches, or Wagner because Meistersinger was Hitler’s favourite opera.
Roman Festivals rounded off the Roman Trilogy in 1928. It's generally regarded as less successful than its two predecessors. However, Respighi interpreter Yan Pascal Tortelier points to its 'inspired mix of sophisticated orchestration, chromaticism, harmony and powerful driving rhythms’. Tortelier picks out ‘La Befana’ (The Epiphany), the ‘exuberant, almost orgiastic’ final movement. This is ‘much more varied and satisfying musically’ than the similarly eruptive Appian Way sequence in Pines of Rome.
For Respighi himself Roman Festivals, with its ‘maximum of orchestral sonority and colour’, represented a culmination of his large-scale orchestral composition. ‘With the present constitution of the orchestra,’ he wrote, ‘it is impossible to achieve more. I do not think I shall write any more scores of this kind. Now I am much more interested in small ensembles and the small orchestra.’
What else did Respighi compose besides Pines of Rome?
In fact Respighi had already been writing impressively for more modest forces earlier in his career. Shortly after Fountains of Rome he had produced the first of what would become three suites for smaller orchestra of Ancient Airs and Dances, elegant pieces (four per suite) based on lute music of the 16th and 17th centuries.
In the same vein, and equally delightful, is Gli Uccelli (The Birds, 1927), five short movements based on lute and harpsichord pieces by Pasquini, Gallot and Rameau. These compositions are symptomatic of Respighi’s deep and abiding interest in the (mainly Italian) music of bygone eras.
Inspired by his studies with Torchi and Martucci in Bologna, Respighi was an ‘early music’ specialist avant la lettre. As a musicologist, he was indefatigable editor of at that time little-known composers such as Monteverdi, Frescobaldi, Tartini and Vitali. He also produced transcriptions of works by Marcello, Boccherini, Pergolesi, and Cimarosa.
What ballets did Respighi compose?
Respighi’s predilection for noodling around in the murkier recesses of musical history also yielded a tuneful ballet score based on rarely heard piano pieces by Rossini, La boutique Fantasque (The Magic Toy Shop), probably his most recorded work outside the Roman Trilogy. No less a company than Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes premiered La boutique in London in 1919, and six years later Respighi returned to Rossini’s piano music for a second helping, producing the attractive four-movement suite for orchestra Rossiniana.
Respighi drew on other sources of inspiration in his variegated orchestral tapestries – visual (the Botticelli Triptych), geographical (Brazilian Impressions), and ecclesiastical (Church Windows). While many of these compositions are relatively well known nowadays, large areas of his output are rarely performed.
His operas are almost unknown outside Italy: the dramatic tale of love and witchcraft La Fiamma is a strong contender for revival, while the smaller-scale La Bella dormente nel Bosco (Sleeping Beauty) would link nicely with a one-acter by Ravel or Puccini in a double-header.
Was Respighi a modernist or a traditionalist?
Late in his career, in 1932, Respighi was among ten Italian composers whose manifesto berated obscurantist tendencies in modern composition. This group re-emphasised their commitment to ‘human content’ in music, and their opposition to the ‘mechanical demonstration’ of composers using pre-determined technical systems to generate pieces (the 12-note methodology of the Second Viennese School was a target).
But there is more to Respighi than a reaction to musical modernism, and a desire to honour past cultural traditions. There is a sensuality to his music which is Mediterranean in nature. This is directly at odds with the more intellectual and philosophical mindset of the Austro-Germanic composers whose works continue to exert a stranglehold on the programming of symphony orchestras.
Time for that stranglehold to loosen, and for more Respighi to be heard. Italian music’s relationship with external reality is too immediate to submit to principles of organisation. As Gian Francesco Malipiero, Respighi’s contemporary, said: ‘What does it mean to have style? It means to write The Fountains of Rome…’.
When did Respighi die?
Ottorini Respighi died on 18 April 1936, in Rome, from complications of blood poisoning. He was 56. His wife Elsa and various friends were at his side.
Terry Blain