Wednesday November 18, 2009

Colorado Music Festival Orchestra
Michael Christie, conductor
Ottorino Respighi: The Fountains of Rome 16:46
Ottorino Respighi: The Pines of Rome 24:22 (6/29/07)
Also, Charley talks with Barbara Hamilton-Primus and Paul Primus about the Colorado Chamber Players concert at RedLine Denver Art Gallery Sunday.
Gordon Jacob: "Gavotte" (2nd movement) from Four Fancies
Mark Fish: "Self-Portrait" (7th movement), "The Escape Ladder" (8th movement) & "The Red Sun Gnaws at the Spider" (10th movement) from Pictures of Miró
D'Arcy Reynolds: "The Camel Yard" (opening section) from Cloven Dreams (2:34)
Colorado Chamber Players (Paul Nagem, Flute; Paul Primus, Violin; Barbara Hamilton-Primus, Viola; Judith McIntyre, Cello)
CPR Performance Studio 1/16/09 MS
And, Charley anticipates Alex Komodore's appearance with the Denver Philharmonic this Friday.
Heitor Villa-Lobos: Prelude No. 1
Alex Komodore, guitar
Passport 1002 Track 8 4:04


Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936): Fontane di Roma (The Fountains of Rome)
I. The Fountain of Valle Giulia at Dawn
II. The Triton Fountain in the Morning
III. The Fountain of Trevi at Midday
IV. The Villa Medici Fountain at Sunset

``Take your umbrella and galoshes'' was Respighi's advice to listeners of The Fountains of Rome. The work is the first of the so-called ``Roman trilogy'' of symphonic poems, the others being The Pines of Rome and Roman Festivals.
As early as 1902, Respighi wondered why no one had yet written music about Rome's fountains, which he felt were ``the very voice of this city.'' Spurred by Arturo Toscanini's promise of a performance, The Fountains of Rome was completed in 1916. ``The Maestro,'' said Respighi, ``is very pleased with the work and is sure of its success.''
By the time of the concert, the audience was tense. Toscanini had programmed two Wagner pieces at a time when Italy and Germany were at war. In Padua, many women and children had been killed by a direct hit on an air-raid shelter. As Toscanini conducted the Funeral March from Die Götterdämmerung, a voice shouted from the balcony, ``This is for the Paduan dead.'' At this, the conductor hurled his baton at the floor, left the stage and cancelled his remaining concerts, leaving Fountains unperformed.
The première of The Fountains of Rome had to wait until March 11, 1917, when Antonio Guarnieri conducted it in Rome. ``My Fountains of Rome is being given today,'' Respighi wrote to a friend. ``They'll open the taps and drench the Roman audience with water--fetid water. Let's hope they don't protest by hissing too much.''
After the performance, Respighi's wife Elsa noted in her diary: ``Rather cold reception with some hissing at the end of the work. I am delighted with it and have a violent argument with someone who does not share my view. Almost all the press notices poor, yet there is unreserved praise for the orchestration.'' For his part, Respighi threw the score on the bed and exclaimed, ``Bah! This has been a failure! I'll write another.'' It was Toscanini who rescued the music in 1918 with a wildly successful performance in Milan.
Respighi was fairly specific about the program of the work. In the preface to the score, he wrote: ``In this symphonic poem, the composer has endeavored to give expression to the sentiments and visions suggested to him by four of Rome's fountains, 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 first part of the poem, inspired by the Fountain of Valle Giulia, depicts a pastoral landscape. Droves of cattle pass and disappear in the fresh, damp mists of a Roman dawn. A sudden loud and insistent blast above the trills of the whole orchestra introduces the second part. It is like a joyous call, summoning troops of naiads and tritons, who come running up pursuing each other and mingling in a frenzied dance between the jets of water.
``Next there appears a solemn theme, borne on the undulations of the orchestra. It is the Fountain of Trevi at midday. The solemn theme, passing from the wood to the brass instruments, assumes a triumphal character. Trumpets peal; across the radiant surface of the water there passes Neptune's chariot, drawn by sea-horses and followed by a train of sirens and tritons. The procession then vanishes, while faint trumpet blasts sound in the distance.
``The fourth part is announced by a sad theme which rises above a subdued warbling. It is the nostalgic hour of sunset. The air is full of the sound of tolling bells, birds twittering, leaves rustling. Then all dies peacefully into the silence of the night.''
The score calls for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, cymbals, carillon, celeste, bells, 2 harps, piano, organ 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.