1 1.L'Usignolo
2 2.L'Ambasciatore
3 3.La Fata Azzurra #1.
4 4.La Fata Azzurra #2.
5 5.Il Giullare
6 6.La Fata Azzurra #3.
7 7.La Fata Verde
8 8.La Regina
9 9.La Vecchietta #1.
10 10.La Principessa
11 11.La Vecchietta #2.
12 12.Il Fuso
13 13.Il Re #1.
14 14.Il Re #2.					play
15 15.La Fata Azzurra #4.
16 16.Un Boscaiuolo
17 17.La Duchessa De La Bandolière
18 18.Il Principe Aprile #1.			play
19 19.Il Principe Aprile
20 20.Il Principe Aprile #2.
21 21.La Fata Azzurra #5.
22 22.I Cortigiani


Il Ré - Richard Haan
Il Bascaiuolo - Richard Haan
La Regina - Denisa Slepkovská
La Duchessa - Denisa Slepkovská
La Principessa - Janas Valásková
Il Principe Aprile - Guillermo Dominguez
La Fata Azzura - Adriana Kohutkova
L'Usignolo - Adriana Kohutkova
La Vecchietta - Ivana Czaková
La Fata Verde - Ivana Czaková
Il Cuculo - Dagmar Pecková
Il Gatto - Dagmar Pecková
La Rana - Henrietta Lednárová
Il Giullare - Igor Pasek
Il Fuso - Henrietta Lednárová
L'Ambaciatore - Ján Durco
Mr Dollar Chèques - Adriano
Medico I - Karol Bernáth
Medico II - Marián Smolárik
Medico III - Stanislav Benacka
Medico IV - Anton Kurnava

Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra (Bratislava)
Slovak Philharmonic Chorus
Adriano - conductor, 1994

The 1689 fairy-tale of Charles Perrault, La belle au bois dormant (Sleeping Beauty), inspired Tchaikovsky to his famous ballet exactly two hundred years later and in 1901 provided the subject of an opera for Engelbert Humperdinck. Both these works were conceived for adult performers. Respighi's opera on the same subject calls for an ensemble of puppets and is addressed to young audiences. It became so successful in his own lifetime that, with his ballet La boutique fantasque, it heads the group of his most frequently performed stage works.

In the 1920s Vittorio Podrecca's puppet company I Piccoli was very famous, and not only in Italy. After attending a performance in London an enthusiastic George Bernard Shaw seemed to prefer Podrecca's wooden actors to real ones and Respighi too expressed the opinion that it was a joy to work with actors one could pack away into a box after rehearsal, so that they could not bother one with complaints and gossip, as their flesh and blood colleagues do.

On 13th April, 1922, La bella addormentata nel bosco was given its first performance at the Teatro Odescalchi in Rome. The conductor was Respighi's pupil Renzo Massarani and the production, which held the stage in Podrecca's company for over twenty years, toured to Turkey, Greece, Egypt, Bulgaria, Russia, Canada, Australia and Japan. For London performances the soprano Cissie Vaughan, a pupil of Adelina Patti and Ruggero Leoncavallo, was engaged. She presumably sang the parts of the Nightingale / Blue Fairy, the actual principal role of the opera, rather than that of the Princess.

In November 1933 Respighi completed a new version of his childrens opera, now called La bella dormente nel bosco, at the request of the Teatro di Torino, and conducted the first performance on 9th April, 1934. This was acted in mime by some hundred children, while singing and speaking parts were heard from the orchestra pit, as they had been in the earlier performances in Rome. Since the manuscript of the first version has been lost, there is no chance of comparing it with its revision, but it is known that for the original orchestration Respighi had commissioned his pupil Vincenzo di Donato. The 1933 manuscript score used for this recording can, therefore, be considered the composer's authentic version, as revised and orchestrated by himself for a larger symphonic ensemble rather than for the reduced forces of Podrecca's theatre.

Respighi conducted his fairy-tale opera in an RAI Torino broadcast of 13th April, 1934. Further productions followed from the same station in 1937, under the direction of Armando La Rosa Parodi, and in 1939, under Alfredo Simonetto. Again for RAI Torino, Elsa Respighi prepared aversion of La be/1a dormente nel bosco for a concert broadcast of 13th June, 1967, under the direction of Arturo Basile. This version contained a number of unpardonable cuts and a newly composed and rather questionable rock'n roll finale by Gian Luca Tocchi. This performance has been preserved on a pirate LP by Anna Records. In other words, La bella dormente nel bosco has never been seen on the operatic stage, although such a staging would be valuable, with music and singing parts that are of considerable interest. There may be reservations about the libretto of Gian Bistolfi, but appropriate staging can easi1y overcome any such difficulties. In today's repertoire there are many operas, serious and comic, that have libretti far worse than Bistolfi's.

The music of La bella dormente nel bosco, which Respighi described as an innocent mockery of contemporary melodrama, is quite a revelation, containing a synthesis of the composer's stylistic versatility while revealing his musical sense of humour, which ranges from the most forthright to the most refined parody. The composer clearly had it in mind to pay homage to musicians then in fashion, to Wagner, Massenet and Debussy (not only with Mr Dollar's Cakewalk), Puccini and Stravinsky. It is obvious that such subtleties cannot reach every audience, especially the younger, but unprepared listeners may find pleasure, nevertheless, in the opera's appealing and generally romantic fairy-tale score. Contemporary critics discovered, welcomed and even overrated the composer's few marks of homage to Wagner in the Prince's journey to the castle (Siegfried's Rhejnfahrt), in the Green Fairy's melodrama (Freia's motif rather than Erda's) and in the waking scene of the Princess (Brünnhilde's), not to mention the suggestion of Die Meistersinger in the Doctor's scene. In addition to other marks of homage, particularly those to Puccini (as clearly in the final love-duet), since Respighi never talked in detail about his work, we can presume that there may also be quotations and references, the result rather of intuition than intention from an eclectic mind. What is important in this apparently lightweight piece is that its goal has been fully reached in a score that displays incredible spontaneity, sensibility, melody and thoroughly virtuosic instrumentation.

To write La bella dormente nel bosco Respighi had interrupted his work on his comic opera Belfagor. It is suggested that the perceptive listener might well discover in this less pretentious work some premonitions of Belfagor and others, like the Frog's scene at the beginning, that already take us to the forest of La campana sommersa.

La bella dormente nel bosco can be heard in the present recording in its complete form, except in the case of the finale, from which a minuet of 37 bars has been omitted. The present writer found it appropriate to take seriously the courtiers' chorus invitation to celebrate spring-time as in nouveau style by moving forward directly to the concluding Fox-trot, thus finally ignoring the seventeenth century music. A short-score fragment of a Tango, preceding the Fox-trot, has been found and the present writer would have been delighted to orchestrate it, had it been complete. As far as the inclusion of occasional chorus applause and cheering, cats' miaowing, gong-striking and a few changes in some of the spoken dialogue is concerned, the present recording called for even more of such extra theatrical effects.

The opera requires a modest orchestra of seven wind instruments, strings and percussion, with additional piano, celesta and spinet (or harpsichord). Like Richard Strauss in Ariadne auf Naxos, where four wind instruments are doubled, Respighi achieves incredible things with a small ensemble. The fifteen singing and two speaking parts were originally taken by no more than ten performers, as on this recording. This does not mean that the casting of the Blue Fairy / Nightingale should be underestimated: the role is a challenging one, for a coloratura soprano. The two lyric parts of the Princess and the Prince also make their demands, particularly in the final duet.

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Disc: 1
1. Act 1: Intro - Hungariain State Orch/Lamberto Gardelli
2. Act 1, Scena 1: Susiana, Susiana! - Eva Marton/Veronika Kincses
3. Act 1, Scena 1: Io Vedo!/Scena 2: (Merodach Appare) - Eva Marton/Veronika Kincses/Hungarian Radio & Television Chor/Peter Erdei
4. Act 1, Scena 3: Quest' E La Notte - Eva Marton/Veronika Kincses/Lando Bartonlini/Hungarian Radio & Television Chor/Peter Erdei
5. Act 1, Scena 4: Non Voglio Che Voce Piu - Eva Marton/Veronika Kincses/Lando Bartolini
6. Act 1, Scena 4: Di Sangue E Gia Piena - Eva Marton/Veronika Kincses/Lando Bartolini
7. Act 1, Scena 4: (La Regina Indietregga) - Hungarian State Orch/Lamberto Gardelli
8. Act 1, Scena 5: Farnetico, Dunque - Eva Marton/Veronika Kincses/Lando Bartolini
9. Act 1, Scena 6: Susiana... - Lando Bartolini/Veronika Kincses
10. Act 2, Scena 1:Colonna Di Fumo/Scena 2 - Laszlo Polgar/Tamas Clementis
11. Act 2, Scena 3: Falasar Non Puoi - Laszlo Polgar/Lajos Miller
12. Act 2, Scena 4: Male T'Agiti - Lajos Miller
13. Act 2, Scena 4: Ecco Di Fuoco - Lajos Miller/Eva Marton

Disc: 2
1. Act 2, Scena 4: Non Piu! - Lajos Miller/Eva Marton
2. Act 2, La Danza Di Aurora - Hungarian State Orch/Lamberto Gardelli
3. Act 2, La Danza Di Aurora: Falasar, Falasar - Eva Marton
4. Act 2, La Danza Di Aurora: Smirama Mi Taccio - Lajos Miller/Eva Marton
5. Act 3: Intro - Hungarian State Orch/Lamberto Gardelli
6. Act 3, Scena 1: Ahime...No....No - Veronika Kincses
7. Act 3, Scena 2: E Passa Il Vento - Eva Marton
8. Act 3, Scena 3: I Simulacri Sono Caduti - Laszlo Polgar/Eva Marton
9. Act 3, Scena 4: Caldea! - Lajos Miller/Veronika Kincses
10. Act 3, Scena 4: Ah!... - Eva Marton/Veronika Kincses/Lajos Miller
11. Act 3, Scena 5: Smirama T'Ainta! - Lando Bartolini/Eva Marton/Laszlo Polgar
12. Act 3, Scena 6: Dagli Astri - Eva Marton/Lando Bartolini
13. Act 3, Scena 7: Abominio! - Veronika Kincses/Eva Marton
14. Act 3, Scena 8: Nynia, Odimi - Veronika Kincses/Lando Bartolini
15. Act 3, Scenas 9-10: (Nynia Precipita Nel Mausoleo) - Hungarian State Orch
16. Act 3, Scena 11: O, Figlio - Eva Marton/Hungarian Radio & Television Chor/Peter Erdei

Veronika Kincses (Soprano)
Lajos Miller (Baritone)
Tamas Clementis (Bass)
László Polgár (Bass)
Eva Martón (Soprano)
Lando Bartolini (Tenor)

Hungarian Radio/TV Chorus
Hungarian State Orchestra
Lamberto Gardelli – conductor

Semirama, Respighi's first important operatic work, received its premiere at Bologna's Teatro Comunale in 1910. Though well received by public and press, it was never performed again. This recording debut of Semirama is part of Hungaroton's ongoing survey of Respighi's operas.

The story is essentially the same one used by Rossini in Semiramide, although all the characters' names are different: in Semiramide the names were Italianized, but for Semirama the composer and his librettist, Alessandro Cere, wanted to emphasize the exoticism of the story. Stylized, richly descriptive language adds considerably by the opera's exotic flavor. Respighi matches the opulence of the libretto with music is rich chromaticism and a glittering vividly colored orchestral fabric. --- business.highbeam.com

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Respighi, Ottorino : Fountains of Rome
1. 1. The Valle Giulia Fountain At Daybreak (La fontana de Valle Giulia à l'alba) 4:14
2. 2. The Triton Fountain In The Morning (La Fontana del Tritone al mattino)	2:45
3. 3. The Trevi Fountain At Midday (La Fontana di Trevi al meriggio)	4:03
4. 4. The Villa Medici Fountain At Sunset (La Fontana di Villa Medici al tramonto)

Respighi, Ottorino : Pines of Rome
5. The Pines Of Villa Borghese (I pini di Villa Borghese)	2:56
6. The Pines Near A Catacomb (Pini presso una catacomba)	6:54	
7. Pines Of The Janiculum (I pini del Gianicolo)		6:48
8. The Pines Of The Appian Way (I pini della Via Appia)

Respighi, Ottorino : Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite III
9. 1. Italiana. Andantino		3:37
10. 2. Arie di corte. Andante cantabile-Allegretto-Vivace -Lento con grande espressione-Allegro vivace-Vivacis- simo-Andante cantabile		8:23	
11. 3. Siciliana. Andantino		3:22 
12. 4. Passacaglia. Maestoso – Vivace

Boccherini, Luigi : Quintet for 2 Violins, Viola and 2 Cellos in C major, Op. 30 no 6/G 324 "Musica notturna di Madrid"
13. 1. Introduzione		0:42	
14. 2. Minuetto		1:50
15. 3. Largo assai, senza rigor di Battuta		2:35
16. 4. Passacalle	2:50	
17. 5. Ritirata		2:20

18. Albinoni, Tomaso : Adagio for Organ and Strings in G minor

Wolfgang Meyer (Organ)
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Herbert von Karajan (Conductor)

This disc, mercifully well recorded in the 1970s, at last brings a performance that can stand comparison with the famous one made by Reiner and the CPO in about 1960 and now available in fine SACD format. I refer to the two Roman pieces which are the real meat of this disc. The remaining items are not really in the same class of epic inspiration but are still played here as well as can be imagined.

The key defining moment in the Pines and Festivals is the last movement of the Pines. It is crucial that the correct tempo is chosen. This should represent the might of the Roman army marching from a far distance, hazy effects vital here, and probably coming from Egypt (indicative cor anglais solo). From there the piece is all about overlapping swathes of sound building up remorselessly over a steady marching beat. The steady beat is crucial (bass drum). Too fast and it becomes a jolly romp home. Too much detail on the beat within the beat and the same damage is done. Very few conductors can resist the urge for volume and speed for this ending and consequently lessen the impact disastrously. Reiner does it best. Karajan is in the same class though and has the advantage of newer recording. Muti and Pappano are among the others who are most successful with this piece and refuse to hurry.

There are, of course, many other key points but none so crucial as the ending. Recorded nightingales are generally well done and so is the distant solo trumpet heard earlier. Karajan is playing to his strengths on this disc. The BPO are pretty well a dream team with this sort of drilled precision and mellifluous playing. That combination is what makes this a fine Roman pairing. The string resources of this orchestra are also shown to good effect in the Boccherini and Albinoni arrangements as well as in the Ancient Airs suite 3.

I would suggest that this disc, along with Reiner, Muti and Pappano, is well worth considering for purchase by those wanting an 'only' recording or those interested in comparative recordings. ---I. Giles, amazon.com

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Ancient Airs and Dances, Set 3, arrangements (4) for strings, P. 172
1. 	1. Italiana (Anon.) 	03:19 
2. 	2. Arie di corte (Jean-Baptiste Besard) 	07:20 	
3. 	3. Siciliana (Anon.) 	03:07 
4. 	4. Pasacaglia (Ludovico Roncalli) 	03:02 	

Gli uccelli (The Birds), suite for orchestra, P. 154
5. 	1. Preludio (Bernardo Pasquini) 	02:56 	
6. 	2. La colomba (Jacques Gallot) 		04:58 
7. 	3. La gallina (Jean-Philippe Rameau) 	02:50 
8. 	4. L'usignuolo (Anon.) 	04:56 	Buy
9. 	5. Il cuccù (Bernardo Pasquini) 	04:39 

La boutique fantasque, ballet after Rossini, P. 120
10. 	Overture 	02:29 	
11. 	Tarantella 	01:41 	
12. 	Mazurka	02:55 	
13. 	Danse cosaque 		02:24 	
14. 	Cancan 	01:43 
15. 	Valse lente 	03:51 	
16. 	Nocturne 	03:48 
17. 	Galop 	01:42 	

Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields
Neville Marriner - conductor

The most austere of Respighi's Ancient Airs and Dances, the third suite employs the most serious material and calls only for strings, although it works best with a fairly substantial ensemble. As with this work's predecessors, the sources are mostly sixteenth and seventeenth century Italian and French lute and guitar pieces found in turn-of-the-twentieth century transcriptions by Italian musicologist Oscar Chilesotti.

The brief first movement, "Italiana," begins with a graceful anonymous tune in 3/4 time, popular around 1600; Respighi marks it Andantino, and grafts it onto a second piece, part of Santino Garsi da Parma's La Cesarina. Both are galliards, and Respighi tends to provide a pizzicato accompaniment to the long melody lines.

The second movement, "Arie di Corte" (Courtly Airs), is a mini-suite of elegant songs by Jean-Baptiste Besard. Respighi gives rich harmonization to the fluid melodies of contrasting character: "It Is Sad to Be in Love with You" (Andante cantabile), "Farewell Forever, Shepherdess" (Allegretto), "Lovely Eyes That See Clearly" (Vivace), "The Skiff of Love" (Lento con grande espressione), "What Divinity Touches My Soul" (Allegro vivace), and the exuberant "If It Is for My Innocence That You Love Me" (Vivacissimo), with the first song returning to close the movement.

Respighi calls the third movement, generically, "Siciliana," but the melody is the anonymous "Spagnoletta," which was popular in a multitude of arrangements in seventeenth century Spain and Italy. It's a poised, rather pastoral yet somehow formal and slightly melancholy piece that Respighi sends through a couple of variations, with a comparatively loud and extroverted version preceding the lower-key final treatment.

By the standards of these suites, the concluding Passacaglia borders on tragedy (it sometimes calls to mind the final movement of Brahms' Symphony No. 4). Based on the concluding item in Ludovico Roncalli's Capricci Armonici for Baroque guitar, the movement is a series of increasingly dramatic variations over a repeating bass line. --- James Reel, Rovi

Respighi's affection for and knowledge of early music is amply demonstrated in his three suites of Ancient Airs and Dances. Gli ucelli (1928) represents another expedition into the past, in which Respighi transforms five characteristic keyboard pieces from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries into a genial suite for orchestra.

The orchestration of early keyboard music is a risky undertaking: The bright, uninflected timbre of an instrument like the harpsichord cannot adequately be conveyed by orchestral sonorities. Wisely, Respighi makes no attempt to do so. Instead, he uses the borrowed material to exploit the innate strengths of the orchestra, relying on melodic ingenuity, sparkling instrumental color, and swift contrasts of volume and tempo for interest. While none of these five movements conveys the brittle brilliance of the original pieces, each is witty, playful, and unpretentious.

After a graceful Prelude based on a work by Bernardo Pasquini, the "uccelli" (birds) of the title make their appearances as follows: the dove (after Jacques de Gallot), the hen (after Jean-Phillippe Rameau), the nightingale (Anonymous, seventeenth century), and the cuckoo (after Pasquini). The Prelude's main theme returns in various guises throughout, and the work ends with a restatement of melodic fragments from earlier movements. --- Roy Brewer, Rovi

After writing his opera William Tell in 1829, Rossini, while still a young man, decided to retire from full-time composition, though he continued to write piano pieces for his own amusement. The ballet music La boutique fantasque (The Fantastic Toy Shop), taken from some of these unpublished miniatures, could have no better advocate than Respighi, whose orchestral flair and Italianate bravura perfectly matched Rossini's lively tunes.

Like another nineteenth century ballet, Coppélia by Delibes, the ballet concerns a toy shop in which the toys come to life. A pair of can-can dancers who have been sold, respectively, to an American and a Russian family, decide to flee in order to avoid separation. Their owners return in fury, but are driven from the shop by the other toys. This pleasingly silly story is irrelevant to the music itself, which consists of an Overture followed by a set of dances -- Tarantella, Mazurka, Can-Can, Galop, and Finale. But, thanks to the enduring popularity of the ballet (written for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes), Respighi's arrangement and deft orchestration have forstalled the almost certain extinction of this delightfully light and high-spirited music. A similar service to Rossini was later performed by Benjamin Britten in an equally sparkling version of the Tarantella. --- Roy Brewer, Rovi

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01] Pines of Rome
-The pines of the Villa Borghese
-Pines near a Catacomb
-The pines of the Gianicolo
-The pines of the Appian Way
02] Fountains of Rome
-The fountain of the valle Giulia at Dawn
-The Triton Fountain at morn
-The Fountain of Trevi at midday
-The villa Medici Fountain at sunset

New Philharmonia Orchestra
Charles Munch – conductor

Pines of Rome (Pini di Roma) is chronologically the second installment in Italian composer Ottorino Respighi's "Roman trilogy." It is a symphonic tone poem scored for a very large orchestra and cast in four movements, the musical content being representative of a literary plan. In Pines of Rome, Respighi succeeds spectacularly, producing a colorful and exciting montage of impressions that capture the imagination without wandering or becoming digressive.

"The Pines at the Villa Borghese" depicts a scene at a once-private resort, and Respighi's music captures the energy and irreverence of children at play, including a discordant trumpet "raspberry" towards the end. This is contrasted by an austere phrase of plainchant that begins "The Pines near the Catacombs." Meditative in mood, the movement leads to a climax built around an insistent, repeated figure stated in fifths in the strings. This leads seamlessly into the next section, "Pines of the Janiculum." Opening with a spray of color from the piano, the piece slowly evolves into a beautiful nocturne punctuated by the recorded sound of a nightingale's twittering, in one of the first instances where a recorded sound is specified for a concert score. This movement is successfully "impressionistic" without being particularly "French." "The Pines of the Appian Way" transforms from a slow, mysterious section into a loud, exciting march that evokes Ancient Rome, its gladiators, and its chivalry.

Italian music lovers in the early twentieth century more strongly resisted modern trends than those of greater Europe, as they were inclined toward opera and generally less enthusiastic about instrumental music. While Respighi was determined to lead Italian audiences, kicking and screaming if necessary, back to instrumental music, a field once dominated by Italian musicians, he was also keenly aware that it would not be an easy struggle. During the preparation of Pines of Rome for its 1924 premiere under conductor Bernardino Molinari, Respighi was quoted "Let them boo...what do I care?" And boo they did, at the raspberries in the "Villa Borghese," and at the sound of the recorded nightingale in the "Janiculum." But the triumphant march that concludes the work won the audience over, and the finale was greeted with an ovation.

Pines of Rome was soon played to great acclaim in the capitals of Europe, and even became a concert staple in the United States. Famous conductors such as Respighi's friend Toscanini, Koussevitzky, Fritz Reiner, Stokowski, and others, adopted Pines into their repertoires. The entire community of early Hollywood composers owes a huge debt of gratitude to Respighi for Pines and its scoring, which has been, time and again, acknowledged.

Nonetheless, many critics have condemned Respighi and Pines for being trashy, overblown, ultra-conservative and even fascistic. Time has borne out that Pines of Rome is a work that's here to stay; audiences love it, and it's the sort of work that, with a little effort, can make a good conductor sound like a great one. --- Uncle Dave Lewis, Rovi

Ottorino Respighi explained that he composed his symphonic poem Fontane di Roma (The Fountains of Rome), "to reproduce by means of tone an expression of nature," and to impart a feeling for the "principal events of Roman life." Based upon the sentiments and visions suggested to him by four of Rome's fountains, he noted in the score that each movement was "contemplated at the hour in which their character is most in harmony with the surrounding landscape or in which their beauty appears most impressive to the observer." The poem is remembered as his most creative turning point, as it constituted his first great success as an orchestral composer and has become his best known work.

Respighi arrived in Rome in 1913, when it was becoming Italy's most vigorous center of orchestral concert-giving, thus providing stimulation for Fontane di Roma. Prior to his arrival there, he taught at the Bologna Liceo Musicale. While in Bologna, he associated with the lega dei Cinque, an anti-establishment pressure-group, whose members included Pizzetti, Malipiero, Bastianelli, and Renzo Bossi. Although he had studied violin as a child, during this time he was more active as a piano accompanist than as a string player. When he was denied a permanent post in Bologna, he applied elsewhere, gaining a position as professor of composition at the Liceo Musicale di S Cecilia, Rome. He flourished there as a teacher. His students included Elsa Olivieri, whom he married in 1919. Rome, in its positive stage of musical development, provided Respighi with the perfect opportunity to present Fontane di Roma, which, although not immediately accepted, eventually brought him enormous success, wealth, and reputation.

In Rome, where the water has been good since ancient times, fountains carrying public water are an attraction in nearly every square. The fountains about which Respighi wrote, as well as many others in the area, were actually created in the Baroque style in the seventeenth century by the sculptor Bernini. The first part of the poem is inspired by the "Fountain of Valle Giulia" and depicts its peaceful pastoral landscape, where cattle pass at dawn. Blasts of horns and trills from the orchestra conjure up the image of joyful tritons and water-nymphs mingling and splashing at the "Triton Fountain." The "Fountain of Trevi" at midday, with a solemn theme, assumes a triumphal character depicting Neptune's chariot passing across the water, drawn by seahorses, followed by tritons and sirens. Finally, birds sing and bells toll to close the day at the "Villa Medici Fountain."

The work had its first performance in Rome on March 11, 1917, and in the United States on February 13, 1919. Shortly thereafter, Respighi was appointed director of the now state-funded Conservatorio di S Cecilia. Fontane di Roma has become inseparably linked with two additional symphonic poems, Pini di Roma (1923-1924) and Feste romane (1929), which were intentionally written as sequels. These works continue to have international success. --- Meredith Gailey, Rovi

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1	Respighi: The Birds (Gli uccelli), P. 154 - 1. Prelude	3:04 	
2 	Respighi: The Birds (Gli uccelli), P. 154 - 2. The Dove (La colomba)	4:22 	
3	Respighi: The Birds (Gli uccelli), P. 154 - 3. The Hen (La gallina)	3:02 	
4 	Respighi: The Birds (Gli uccelli), P. 154 - 4. The Nightingale (L'usignolo)	4:24 	
5 	Respighi: The Birds (Gli uccelli), P. 154 - 5. The Cuckoo (Il cuccù)		4:15 	
6 	Respighi: Brazilian Impressions, P. 153 - 1. Tropical Night	9:48 	
7 	Respighi: Brazilian Impressions, P. 153 - 2. Butantan	4:46 	
8 	Respighi: Brazilian Impressions, P. 153 - 3. Song and Dance	4:34 	
9 	Respighi: Fountains of Rome, P. 106 - The Fountain of Valle Giulia (La fontana di Valle Giulia all'alba)	4:10 	
10 	Respighi: Fountains of Rome, P. 106 - The Triton Fountain (La fontana di Tritone al mattino)
	2:12 	
11 	Respighi: Fountains of Rome, P. 106 - The Fountain of Trevi (La fontana di Trevi al meriggio)
	3:40 	
12 	Respighi: Fountains of Rome, P. 106 - The Villa Medici Fountain (La fontana di Villa Medici al tramonto)	5:28 	
13 	Respighi: Pines of Rome, P. 141 - The Pines of Villa Borghese (I pini di Villa Borghese)	2:43 
14 	Respighi: Pines of Rome, P. 141 - The Pines near a Catacomb (Pini presso una catacomba)
	5:34 	
15 	Respighi: Pines of Rome, P. 141 - The Pines of the Janiculum (I pini del Gianicolo)	5:37 
16 	Respighi: Pines of Rome, P. 141 - The Pines of the Appian Way (I pini della Via Appia)	5:25

London Symphony Orchestra  (1-8)
Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra (9-16)
Antal Dorati - conductor

The disc offers four of Respighi’s most enduringly popular scores upon which his reputation as composer is predominantly based. For these recordings Dorati uses two separate orchestras. The earliest performances, The Birds and Brazilian Impressions were recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra in 1957 at Watford Town Hall. Almost three years later the Fountains of Rome and Pines of Rome were recorded with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra in 1960 at the University of Minnesota.

The justly popular suite for small orchestra The Birds from 1927 is Respighi’s attempt at transcribing birdsong into musical notation. Each of the five pieces is based on melodies from the seventeenth and eighteenth century by four European composers principally the Italian, Pasquini. The Prelude deploys Pasquini’s memorable and much admired melody. In the remaining pieces The dove, The hen, The nightingale and The cuckoo can be found many fine examples of Respighi’s cheerful and witty writing. At times in The cuckoo I was reminded of Copland’s prairie music of the great outdoors.

From 1928 Brazilian Impressions is a three movement orchestral suite based on popular folk melodies that Respighi had heard in Brazil. The opening score Tropical Night has a convincing sultry nocturnal feel laced with hints of the tango. Following a visit to a snake farm the central movement Butantan is a successful and suitably edgy depiction of a snakes slithering through the undergrowth. Concluding the score is the colourful and pleasing Song and Dance based on folk music heard at a carnival.

In both suites The Birds and Brazilian Impressions the London Symphony Orchestra play well but do not quite deliver the necessary polish and controlled exuberance to allow the music to be heard at its best.

Finally we have Respighi’s two most famous scores: the highly descriptive symphonic poems the Fountains of Rome and Pines of Rome. These cemented his international reputation. From 1916 the Fountains of Rome is a musical depiction of his inspirations from four Roman fountains. A languid scene, The Valle Giulia Fountain at Dawn has a distinctly bucolic feel. Buoyant and excitable, The Triton Fountain in the Morning conveys a convincing impression of water spouts. With heavier textures the Trevi Fountain at Mid-day commences with solemnity that develops into euphoria. With notable brass contributions the music represents a scene of Neptune’s chariot pulled by seahorses. At times I was reminded of film scores to classic Hollywood epics of the silver screen. The Villa Medici fountain at Sunset provides a pastoral conclusion with notable woodwind contributions. Tender and affectionately expressive playing leads onwards to a distant tolling bell heralding the ebb of the music.

Pines of Rome a tone poem for large orchestra, is again cast in four movements: in effect a series of nature impressions. The Pines of the Villa Borghese represents excitable and energetic children at play in the pine groves. In this colourful and thrilling score I was strongly reminded of music that might accompany a swashbuckling movie romp with Errol Flynn. I did wonder if Korngold knew this piece. A shadows and mystery inhabit the movement Pines near a Catacomb. Again that strong sense of an epic Hollywood ‘sword and sandal’ film score is evident. Strongly impressionist in disposition The Pines of the Janiculum is lush and tender. A recording of a Nightingale can be heard over tremolo strings. So much for twentieth century Avant-garde composers writing music for orchestra and tape. A thrilling sense of foreboding fills the air in The Pines of the Appian Way with a distinct Middle Eastern flavour suffusing the writing. It feels as if a marching army can be heard approaching in the distance, coming closer and closer, resulting in a thunderous climax.

On these final two scores Dorati conducts the Minneapolis Symphony. Although the performance is more than acceptable these scores would have benefited from a higher calibre of playing than that provided by the Minneapolis Orchestra. --- Michael Cookson, musicweb-international.com

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