Ottorino Respighi (1879 - 1936)
Ottorino Respighi (1879 - 1936)
Respighi is now my favourite composer after Beethoven and I've heard a lot of classical music. I can't understand why Respighi has attracted so much adverse criticism. I think he's a seriously undervalued composer and the following works in my opinion are masterpieces:
The Roman trilogy
Three Botticelli Pictures
Concerto Gregoriano
Metamorphoseon
Brazilian Impressions
Toccata for piano and orchestra
Piano Concerto in A Minor
Concerto in modo misolidio for piano and orchestra
Adagio with variations for Cello and Orchestra
I would be very interested to know what others here think of his works
The Roman trilogy
Three Botticelli Pictures
Concerto Gregoriano
Metamorphoseon
Brazilian Impressions
Toccata for piano and orchestra
Piano Concerto in A Minor
Concerto in modo misolidio for piano and orchestra
Adagio with variations for Cello and Orchestra
I would be very interested to know what others here think of his works
Last edited by Intergamer on Thu Feb 15, 2007 11:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Welcome, Intergamer.
You may wish to read this recent thread.
http://www.classicalmusicguide.com/view ... 60&start=0
You may wish to read this recent thread.
http://www.classicalmusicguide.com/view ... 60&start=0
Wow! Two different threads praising Respighi in the same year...what are the odds of that?
I still like the Botticelli Trittico and Ancient Airs and Dances.
I still like the Botticelli Trittico and Ancient Airs and Dances.
"Most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if it would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their lives." ~Leo Tolstoy
"It is the highest form of self-respect to admit our errors and mistakes and make amends for them. To make a mistake is only an error in judgment, but to adhere to it when it is discovered shows infirmity of character." ~Dale Turner
"Anyone who doesn't take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either." ~Albert Einstein
"Truth is incontrovertible; malice may attack it and ignorance may deride it; but, in the end, there it is." ~Winston Churchill
"It is the highest form of self-respect to admit our errors and mistakes and make amends for them. To make a mistake is only an error in judgment, but to adhere to it when it is discovered shows infirmity of character." ~Dale Turner
"Anyone who doesn't take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either." ~Albert Einstein
"Truth is incontrovertible; malice may attack it and ignorance may deride it; but, in the end, there it is." ~Winston Churchill
Another thread about Respighi, now that's interesting. Perhaps Respighi's time will come, just like Mahler's has. The funny thing is I also don't care much for Stravinsky's music. I purchased the complete recordings of Stravinsky, listened to them all and then sold them on eBay. I find Stravinsky's music to be music without a soul. It doesn't connect to me emotionally in anyway, unlike Beethoven's music invariably does. I read that Stravinsky in old age regretted that he took so long to listen to Beethoven's music. He said that Beethoven's last string quartets were more modern than anything I ever wrote. Maybe if he had bothered to study Beethoven's music in his youth then his own music would have been better for it?DavidRoss wrote:Wow! Two different threads praising Respighi in the same year...what are the odds of that?
-
- Posts: 2180
- Joined: Sun Jun 08, 2003 9:10 pm
Discussion of Stravinsky seems to bring out more emotion than the music itself, and perhaps there lies the problem.Intergamer wrote:Another thread about Respighi, now that's interesting. Perhaps Respighi's time will come, just like Mahler's has. The funny thing is I also don't care much for Stravinsky's music. I purchased the complete recordings of Stravinsky, listened to them all and then sold them on eBay. I find Stravinsky's music to be music without a soul. It doesn't connect to me emotionally in anyway, unlike Beethoven's music invariably does. I read that Stravinsky in old age regretted that he took so long to listen to Beethoven's music. He said that Beethoven's last string quartets were more modern than anything I ever wrote. Maybe if he had bothered to study Beethoven's music in his youth then his own music would have been better for it?DavidRoss wrote:Wow! Two different threads praising Respighi in the same year...what are the odds of that?
I'm making it a point to find more recordings of Respighi's music. Had he lived longer, I'm sure he'd be better known today. He died at a time when making recordings was difficult for both producers and listeners. I'm hoping more of his music will interest first-rate performers.
John
Good luck with that. There hasn't even been a full-scale biography written about him. One of his best works Belkis, Queen of Sheba is an exotic ballet (80 minutes in length) and yet only 4 extracts have ever been recorded (22 minutes).CharmNewton wrote:I'm making it a point to find more recordings of Respighi's music.
-
- Posts: 229
- Joined: Thu Nov 30, 2006 1:15 am
- Contact:
-
- Dittersdorf Specialist & CMG NY Host
- Posts: 20990
- Joined: Fri Mar 25, 2005 6:54 am
- Location: Paradise on Earth, New York, NY
Too many people have problems with Respighi because he wasn't aligned with any contemporary musical movement. I love his works and as I've often posted here, his "The Birds" always brings a smile to my face.
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
Albert Einstein
-
- Posts: 3004
- Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2005 11:52 pm
- Location: Mannheim, Germany
I don't think of either Debussy OR Bruckner (stormy??!) when I listen to Respighi, who is correctly regarded as Italy's most important orchestral master.burnitdown wrote:Respighi is great. He's not liked because of his modern style, which is less avantgarde than Debussy and less stormy than (say) Bruckner, giving it a slightly soundtracky feel. But the music is great. Very "Italian" in its forthright emotionality.
A closer comparison would be with Richard Strauss----or Max Reger, whose fine orchestral variations (on themes of Hiller, Mozart, Beethoven, etc.) remain underrated even today.
While Respighi has many incontestable masterpieces, his style is rather limited in expression compared with a Bartok, Hindemith or Stravinsky. Nonetheless, he made important contributions to ballet and the modern symphonic poem.
Jack
"Schumann's our music-maker now." ---Robert Browning
-
- Posts: 2180
- Joined: Sun Jun 08, 2003 9:10 pm
I think you're referring to instrumental works here, but Puccini, Leoncavallo and Mascagni were extraordinary orchestral colorists. I think the Italians do not get their due.Jack Kelso wrote: I don't think of either Debussy OR Bruckner (stormy??!) when I listen to Respighi, who is correctly regarded as Italy's most important orchestral master.
Jack
John
-
- Site Administrator
- Posts: 27613
- Joined: Fri Mar 25, 2005 2:25 am
- Location: The Great State of Utah
- Contact:
Amen to that. The Teutonophiles and Slavophiles think the Germans and the Russians were the only composers that mattered in the 19th Century. Neither the Italians nor the French get their due.CharmNewton wrote:I think you're referring to instrumental works here, but Puccini, Leoncavallo and Mascagni were extraordinary orchestral colorists. I think the Italians do not get their due.Jack Kelso wrote: I don't think of either Debussy OR Bruckner (stormy??!) when I listen to Respighi, who is correctly regarded as Italy's most important orchestral master.
Jack
John
Corlyss
Contessa d'EM, a carbon-based life form
Contessa d'EM, a carbon-based life form
-
- Posts: 3004
- Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2005 11:52 pm
- Location: Mannheim, Germany
Certainly the symphonies of Gounod, Bizet, Lalo, Saint-Saens, D'Indy etc. could be performed more often, especially Gounod's 2nd and Lalo's in g minor.Corlyss_D wrote:Amen to that. The Teutonophiles and Slavophiles think the Germans and the Russians were the only composers that mattered in the 19th Century. Neither the Italians nor the French get their due.CharmNewton wrote:I think you're referring to instrumental works here, but Puccini, Leoncavallo and Mascagni were extraordinary orchestral colorists. I think the Italians do not get their due.Jack Kelso wrote: I don't think of either Debussy OR Bruckner (stormy??!) when I listen to Respighi, who is correctly regarded as Italy's most important orchestral master.
Jack
John
But the Italian composers before Respighi didn't make such strong contributions to the symphonic literature as did the Austro-Germans, Czechs, Russians, English-Irish and Scandinavians. Even the Americans outdid the Italians back then (Chadwick, Griffes, Ives, etc.).
Tschüß,
Jack
"Schumann's our music-maker now." ---Robert Browning
-
- Posts: 9
- Joined: Wed Feb 14, 2007 7:49 pm
- Location: New Jersey
While his pop 'Roman' highlights surface now and then in animation and his music did show up in some blackshirt propaganda films, I always like to daydream about what kind of impact Respighi would have had in actual film scoring.
I think, had his roughly 60 year 'lifetime' been moved slightly later in history, he would have been drawn towards the area of film composition.
I also believe that what his detractors like to point out(his somewhat showy bent)as a weakness, would actually have been an asset in field.
Maybe I'm a little off here, but when I listen certain segments of FOUNTAINS, for example, I can feel it easily fitting where Korngold is usually heard.
Either way, though, I agree with a sentiment voiced earlier...had his exposure lasted just a little further into the twentieth century, he would have the wide esteem he absolutely deserves.
I think, had his roughly 60 year 'lifetime' been moved slightly later in history, he would have been drawn towards the area of film composition.
I also believe that what his detractors like to point out(his somewhat showy bent)as a weakness, would actually have been an asset in field.
Maybe I'm a little off here, but when I listen certain segments of FOUNTAINS, for example, I can feel it easily fitting where Korngold is usually heard.
Either way, though, I agree with a sentiment voiced earlier...had his exposure lasted just a little further into the twentieth century, he would have the wide esteem he absolutely deserves.
his impact was very considerable in film scoring - just listen to the scores of the big 50s Biblical epics - "Ben Hur", "10 Commandments", "Quo Vadis", etc...straight out of Respighisoylentgreen wrote:I always like to daydream about what kind of impact Respighi would have had in actual film scoring.
his colorful, descriptive style of composition was well-suited to the film format.
-
- Winds Specialist
- Posts: 3206
- Joined: Thu Apr 07, 2005 2:26 pm
- Contact:
Only for those who make it a problem.CharmNewton wrote:Intergamer wrote: Discussion of Stravinsky seems to bring out more emotion than the music itself, and perhaps there lies the problem.
(Oy, I can't believe we're going though this again!) C'mon, what's there to not love about Stravinsky???
Black lives matter.
-
- Posts: 2180
- Joined: Sun Jun 08, 2003 9:10 pm
LOL No, I certainly won't be going through this again, although I think there were lots of good points made in the other thread.diegobueno wrote:Only for those who make it a problem.CharmNewton wrote: Discussion of Stravinsky seems to bring out more emotion than the music itself, and perhaps there lies the problem.
(Oy, I can't believe we're going though this again!) C'mon, what's there to not love about Stravinsky???
John
-
- Posts: 3004
- Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2005 11:52 pm
- Location: Mannheim, Germany
Now those biblical epic scores were usually composed by Miklos Rosza, a far cry from Respighi!Heck148 wrote:his impact was very considerable in film scoring - just listen to the scores of the big 50s Biblical epics - "Ben Hur", "10 Commandments", "Quo Vadis", etc...straight out of Respighisoylentgreen wrote:I always like to daydream about what kind of impact Respighi would have had in actual film scoring.
his colorful, descriptive style of composition was well-suited to the film format.
Jack
"Schumann's our music-maker now." ---Robert Browning
-
An orchestration by Respighi that has not been mentioned is his delightful arrangement of five of Rachmaninoff's Études-Tableaux piano pieces.
JS
An orchestration by Respighi that has not been mentioned is his delightful arrangement of five of Rachmaninoff's Études-Tableaux piano pieces.
JS
The sun's a thief, and with her great attraction robs the vast sea, the moon's an arrant thief, and her pale fire she snatches from the sun... (Shakespeare)
-
- Composer-in-Residence
- Posts: 9812
- Joined: Wed Apr 20, 2005 11:12 am
- Location: Boston, MA
- Contact:
For some people, perhaps, John. At any event, if person A makes a sneering remark denigrating Stravinsky, and person B replies sharply, person A is in a position to observe the emotion of B's discussion, but never in any position to observe B's emotion on listening to Stravinsky.CharmNewton wrote:Discussion of Stravinsky seems to bring out more emotion than the music itself, and perhaps there lies the problem.
Look, folks, you want to praise Respighi, I wish you all joy of him!
Do all us admirers of Stravinsky (and all of us who find Stravinsky's music emotional enough on its own terms) the favor and courtesy, when you vent your non-appreciation of Stravinsky, to leave it at "I don't connect to Stravinsky's music, somehow," and spare us the balderdash of "I guess his music doesn't have soul."
Cheers,
~Karl
Last edited by karlhenning on Thu Feb 15, 2007 3:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Karl Henning, PhD
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston, Massachusetts
http://members.tripod.com/~Karl_P_Henning/
http://henningmusick.blogspot.com/
Published by Lux Nova Press
http://www.luxnova.com/
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston, Massachusetts
http://members.tripod.com/~Karl_P_Henning/
http://henningmusick.blogspot.com/
Published by Lux Nova Press
http://www.luxnova.com/
-
- Composer-in-Residence
- Posts: 9812
- Joined: Wed Apr 20, 2005 11:12 am
- Location: Boston, MA
- Contact:
John, what are you talking about? Respighi is standard repertory. He is plenty well known.CharmNewton wrote:I'm making it a point to find more recordings of Respighi's music. Had he lived longer, I'm sure he'd be better known today.
Cheers,
~Karl
Karl Henning, PhD
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston, Massachusetts
http://members.tripod.com/~Karl_P_Henning/
http://henningmusick.blogspot.com/
Published by Lux Nova Press
http://www.luxnova.com/
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston, Massachusetts
http://members.tripod.com/~Karl_P_Henning/
http://henningmusick.blogspot.com/
Published by Lux Nova Press
http://www.luxnova.com/
-
- Site Administrator
- Posts: 27613
- Joined: Fri Mar 25, 2005 2:25 am
- Location: The Great State of Utah
- Contact:
For my money, it's not that he's not well known; it's that they never play his piano concerto or his songs on the radio, never mind in concerts.karlhenning wrote:John, what are you talking about? Respighi is standard repertory. He is plenty well known.CharmNewton wrote:I'm making it a point to find more recordings of Respighi's music. Had he lived longer, I'm sure he'd be better known today.
Corlyss
Contessa d'EM, a carbon-based life form
Contessa d'EM, a carbon-based life form
Stravinsky is disarming, I must admit. I listened to The Flood, last night, and couldn't understand why a man of such talent (who can question that!) would compose a piece that was bound to leave his listeners as cold as buffalo carcasses on the Great Plains a century earlier. There is a point where innovation for the sake of innovation is ... uninspired.
In the eyes of those lovers of perfection, a work is never finished—a word that for them has no sense—but abandoned....(Paul Valéry)
-
- Winds Specialist
- Posts: 3206
- Joined: Thu Apr 07, 2005 2:26 pm
- Contact:
Pshaw!! Stravinsky is full of soul. Les Noces has soul oozing out its pores. The Rite of Spring certainly was novel at the time and now it's recognized everywhere as one of the towering masterpieces of the 20th century, and it's brilliant and exciting to listen to. It wasn't too far out for Walt Disney in 1940, for heaven's sake, and that was 67 years ago!!Intergamer wrote:I think that's the best way to describe Stravinsky's music, as music that doesn't have a soul. His music is admired rather than loved and not listened to very often now. The Rite of Spring was novel at the time, but there's a great deal of superior music by others, which also has more heart.
Black lives matter.
-
- Posts: 229
- Joined: Thu Nov 30, 2006 1:15 am
- Contact:
This could be an accusation leveled against Southern European composers in general: their mood is almost fixed, where the Germans storm and the Eurasians tend to wishy-wash around like their failing governments.Jack Kelso wrote:While Respighi has many incontestable masterpieces, his style is rather limited in expression compared with a Bartok, Hindemith or Stravinsky. Nonetheless, he made important contributions to ballet and the modern symphonic poem.
That's very true. Stravinsky is respected as being an innovator, but what's the point if no one wants to listen.piston wrote:Stravinsky is disarming, I must admit. I listened to The Flood, last night, and couldn't understand why a man of such talent (who can question that!) would compose a piece that was bound to leave his listeners as cold as buffalo carcasses on the Great Plains a century earlier. There is a point where innovation for the sake of innovation is ... uninspired.
-
- Posts: 3004
- Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2005 11:52 pm
- Location: Mannheim, Germany
Before this Respighi thread mutates into an anti-Stravinsky festival, I'd like to point out that his three symphonies, ballets, concerti and other works contain the quintessential master. Hindemith considered the three most important contemporary (c.a. 1940) composers as "Bartok, Stravinsky and myself".Intergamer wrote:That's very true. Stravinsky is respected as being an innovator, but what's the point if no one wants to listen.piston wrote:Stravinsky is disarming, I must admit. I listened to The Flood, last night, and couldn't understand why a man of such talent (who can question that!) would compose a piece that was bound to leave his listeners as cold as buffalo carcasses on the Great Plains a century earlier. There is a point where innovation for the sake of innovation is ... uninspired.
I saw "The Flood" on t.v. in the 1960's, with the old Master himself conducting it. It is not a masterpiece in my opinion, but every great composer produces a dud on occasion----and 20th century composers might just be somewhat more prone to doing so than earlier masters.
Jack
"Schumann's our music-maker now." ---Robert Browning
-
- Posts: 1981
- Joined: Thu Apr 14, 2005 3:00 pm
I love Respighi's Metamorphosen and his chamber music and I love the Rake's Progress.Intergamer wrote: Stravinsky is respected as being an innovator, but what's the point if no one wants to listen.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it!
Intergamer just say YOU don't listen to it. Don't fabricate a statement saying no one wants to listen to it. Such a statement can be disproven by doing a Google search for performances of any late Stravinsky piece.
-
- Winds Specialist
- Posts: 3206
- Joined: Thu Apr 07, 2005 2:26 pm
- Contact:
-
- Composer-in-Residence
- Posts: 9812
- Joined: Wed Apr 20, 2005 11:12 am
- Location: Boston, MA
- Contact:
21 Feb 1929
Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York
Arturo Toscanini
Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York
Arturo Toscanini
Karl Henning, PhD
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston, Massachusetts
http://members.tripod.com/~Karl_P_Henning/
http://henningmusick.blogspot.com/
Published by Lux Nova Press
http://www.luxnova.com/
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston, Massachusetts
http://members.tripod.com/~Karl_P_Henning/
http://henningmusick.blogspot.com/
Published by Lux Nova Press
http://www.luxnova.com/
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests