Ottorino Respighi - Orchestral Works (Geoffrey Simon; Yan Pascal Tortelier)

Information

Composer: Ottorino Respighi

CD1

• Vetrate di chiesa, P 150
• Metamorphoseon modi XII, P 169
• Feste romane, P 157

CD2

• Fontane di Roma, P 106
• Pini di Roma, P 141
• Belkis, regina di Saba, P 177
• Impressioni brasiliane, P 153

Philharmonia Orchestra

Geoffrey Simon & Yan Pascal Tortelier, conductors

Recorded: 1984; 1985; 1991

Compilation: 2013

Label: Chandos

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Review

Before the Edward Downes/BBCPO project Chandos boasted two sumptuous Respighi discs with the Philharmonia and Geoffrey Simon. They appeared in 1984-85 within the half decade after the launch of the CD medium. Then in 1991 Yan Pascal Tortelier and the same orchestra recorded Respighi’s Roman triptych.

 

For me the central selling point here is Vetrate di chiesa (Church Windows) glowingly recorded by Ormandy and the Philadelphia in 1964 on Sony-CBS but in sound that could not hope to vie with that accorded by Chandos two decades later. You need only listen to the skipping acrobatic woodwind and legato address of the strings in Metamorphoseon modi XII to realise that. That’s not the end of it, either. The plangency of the harp registers strongly. It helps greatly that for this work Chandos have retained separate tracks for each variation-metamorphosis. Respighi’s fund of colour, generously spent, defeats any concerns that these variants will have a Reger-like matte quality – quite the contrary. Feste Romane is from Tortelier. It is aptly exuberant and over the top. Who was responsible for casting encouraging smiles towards the brass benches? By heck, is this loud?!

 

CD 2 starts with the famous Fontane di Roma. Everything is outsize and spectacular. There is no room here for tasteful understatement; neither do we get any. This is Rimsky-Korsakov (Respighi’s teacher) on steroids. Much same goes for Pini di Roma although I wish the bubbling horns could have been given more attentive prominence. Then we return to Simon for the exotic ballet suite Belkis, regina di Saba and the Impressioni brasiliane. In Belkis Simon fires up the orchestra to match the Rimskian opulence of the sounds with a dashing and whirling exuberance redolent of El Salón México in Danza Guerresca and Danza orgiastica. It’s all worthy of the Ballets Russes. The Impressione are painted with an impressionistic brush and magic is not in short supply.

 

The notes are the originals from Edward Johnson (CHAN8405, 8317) and Jeremy Siepmann.

 

Simon – who later recorded for his own Cala label – has the measure of these rapturously profligate works, as does Tortelier.

 

This Chandos 2-for-1 set is irresistibly generous and lavishly recorded. I do not see a more attractive entry point for Respighi in his most eloquent and spendthrift style. Mind you we might have to fall back and regroup if Chandos ever reissue their complete Respighi-Downes series.

— Rob Barnett

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Ottorino Respighi (9 July 1879 – 18 April 1936) was an Italian composer, violinist, teacher, and musicologist and one of the leading Italian composers of the early 20th century. He studied at the Liceo Musicale di Bologna, and also studied briefly with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. His compositions range over operas, ballets, orchestral suites, choral songs, chamber music, and transcriptions of Italian compositions of the 16th–18th centuries, but his best known and most performed works are his three orchestral tone poems which brought him international fame: Fountains of Rome (1916), Pines of Rome (1924), and Roman Festivals (1928).

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Geoffrey Simon (born 3 July 1946 in Adelaide) is an Australian conductor. He was a student of Herbert von Karajan, Rudolf Kempe, Hans Swarowsky and Igor Markevitch. His music directorships have included the Albany Symphony Orchestra (New York), the Australian Sinfonia (London), the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra (Indiana), the Orquestra Simfònica de Balears "Ciutat de Palma" (Majorca) and the Sacramento Symphony (California). Simon has made 45 recordings for a number of labels, including his own Cala Records, combining familiar works with world premieres of rediscovered obscure works.

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Yan Pascal Tortelier (born 19 April 1947 in Paris) is a French conductor and violinist. He is the son of the cellist Paul Tortelier. Yan Pascal Tortelier has worked and recorded extensively in the United Kingdom. He was principal conductor of the Ulster Orchestra from 1989 to 1992, the BBC Philharmonic in Manchester from 1992 to 2003, the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo from 2009 to 2011, and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra from 2016 to 2019. Tortelier's recordings include his own orchestration of Ravel's Trio. He is a regular recording artist for Chandos Records with multiple orchestras.

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