OTTORINO RESPIGHI: AN ITALIAN MASTER

OTTORINO RESPIGHI: AN ITALIAN MASTER

In the early decades of the 1900’s, and after years during which the works of the great Opera composers reigned supreme and Italian instrumental music was largely ignored by audiences and musicians alike,  Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936) was almost single-handedly responsible for the rise in importance of Italian orchestral music.In order for that to happen it had to take a genius of the caliber of Respighi to lay claim to a place in the orchestral repertory then largely occupied by the likes of Mahler and Strauss in Germany and Austria, Prokofiev and Rachmaninoff in Russia and Debussy and Ravel in France.

With the composition of his set of suites Ancient Airs and Dances and his Concerto all’antica, Respighi unconsciously embraced Decadentism, an artistic philosophy then much in vogue which sought to recover the traditional aesthetic ideology of Renaissance and Baroque arts. Famed for his Roman Trilogy, The Fountains of Rome and The Pines of Rome with their lush orchestrations, Respighi was also capable of brilliantly combining Baroque and Renaissance musical forms with post-Romantic harmony, as he did in the works featured on this CD.

The NAXOS CLASSICS CD features exquisite playing by violinist Davide Alogna and the Chamber Orchestra of New York led by Maestro Salvatore Di Vittorio.

Rafael de Acha http://www.RafaelMusicNotes.com