Thursday November 12 2009

Colorado Symphony Orchestra
Jeffrey Kahane, conductor
Ottorino Respighi: Brazilian Impressions
Ottorino Respighi: The Pines of Rome (9/11-12/09)
Also, From the Department of Shameless Self-Promotion, Charley anticipates his own appearances with the Denver Brass this weekend.
Howard Shore (arr. Jeremy Van Hoy): The Fellowship of the Ring Suite
Denver Brass/ Kenneth Singleton
DB 8837 "Epics in Brass" CD Track 8 12:03

Ottorini Respighi (1879-1936): Impressioni brasiliane (Brazilian Impressions)
I. Notte tropicale
II. Butantan
III. Canzone e Danza

On May 12, 1927 Respighi and his wife Elsa sailed on the Conte Verde for Rio de Janeiro. There he was commissioned to write a suite on Brazilian themes. After his return to Rome in August, he made sketches for three of five projected movements. By January of 1928 he had finished the orchestration. In March he informed his publisher: ``I have written three movements of a suite on Brazilian themes (there will be five in all) and I need some orchestral parts for my next trip to Brazil.''
Respighi never got around to writing the other two movements. When he sailed, again on the Conte Verdi, on May 10, 1928, he took with him the three-movement torso of Brazilian Impressions. The first performance was conducted by Respighi himself in Sâo Paulo on June 16, 1928. According to Elsa, ``this is one of the works that Respighi wrote for fun--`a joke' as he called it--which gave him amusement and relaxation.''
Nicolas Slonimsky calls the opening movement ``an impressionistic tableau of a tropical night with humidly sliding chord blocks and violins glissando as an atmosphere background for a soft echo of a Brazilian carnival song.''
The middle movement is inspired by the reptile institute at Butantan, just outside Sâo Paulo, where poisonous snakes are bred to make serum. Slonimsky, the great phrase-maker, refers to ``a bassoon introducing a serpentine tune, the clarinet responding in colubrine arabesques and sibilant violins in sforzando puffs, ending on a hissing solo in the bass clarinet.'' The last movement is a kind of stylizied version of Brazilian dance rhythms.
The score calls for piccolo, flutes, English horn, oboes, clarinets including bass clarinet, bassoons, horns, trumpets, trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, celesta, piano and strings.

Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936): Pini di Roma (The Pines of Rome)
I. The Pines of Villa Borghese: Allegretto vivace
II. The Pines near a Catacomb: Lento
III. The Pines of the Janiculum: Lento
IV. The Pines of the Appian Way: Tempo di marcia

Elsa Respighi records that in 1920 her husband ``asked me to sing for him the songs I sang as a child at play....The request surprised me and I was most amused to see Ottorino taking down the simple tunes that Italian children have sung for centuries.'' Four years later, those same melodies would surface in the opening section of The Pines of Rome. It is the second of the ``Roman trilogy'' of symphonic poems, the others being The Fountains of Rome and Roman Festivals.
Bernardino Molinari conducted the first performance of The Pines of Rome on December 14, 1924 in Rome. Despite some isolated booing, the work was a success. ``Let them boo,'' said Respighi, ``what do I care?''
For performances in the United States, Respighi provided his own program note: ``While in The Fountains of Rome the composer sought to reproduce by means of tone an impression of nature, in The Pines of Rome he uses nature as a point of departure, to recall memories and visions. The century-old trees which dominate so characteristically the Roman landscape become testimony for the principal events in Roman life.''
Respighi and Claudio Guastalla developed a program for the work, which is printed in the score:
``1. `The Pines of the Villa Borghese:' Children are at play in the pine grove of the Villa Borghese, dancing the Italian equivalent of `Ring around the Rosy;' mimicking marching soldiers and battles; twittering and shrieking like swallows at evening; and they disappear. Suddenly the scene changes to...
``2. `The Pines near a Catacomb:' We see the shadows of the pines, which overhang the entrance of a catacomb. From the depths rises a chant which reechoes solemnly, like a hymn, and is then mysteriously silenced.
``3. `The Pines of the Janiculum:' There is a thrill in the air. The full moon reveals the profile of the pines of Janiculum Hill. A nightingale sings.
``4. `The Pines of the Appian Way:' Misty dawn on the Appian Way. The tragic country is guarded by solitary pines. Indistinctly, incessantly, the rhythm of innumerable steps. To the poet's fantasy appears a vision of past glories; trumpets blare, and the army of the Consul advances brilliantly in the grandeur of a newly risen sun toward the Sacred Way, mounting the Capitoline Hill.''
A recording of a real nightingale is used in the third section because Respighi ``simply realized that no combination of wind instruments could quite counterfeit the real bird's song. Not even a coloratura soprano could have produced an effect other than artificial.'' The English critic Ernest Newman disapproved. ``Musical realism of the Respighi type could be extended indefinitely,'' he wrote. ``We may live to see the evening when (Beethoven's) Pastoral Symphony will be given with real running water in the slow movement.''
The work is scored for piccolo, 3 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 4 trombones, 6 Flügel horns, timpani, cymbals, triangle, tambourine, rattle, bass drum, tam-tam, bells, celesta, organ, harp, piano and strings.