Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936)
Crepuscolo
Timothy Fallon (tenor)
Ammiel Bushakevitz (piano)
rec. 2021, Studio 2, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Munich
Sung texts with English translation enclosed.
Reviewed as downloaded from press preview
BIS BIS-2632 SACD [74]
For the general listener Ottorino Respighi is synonymous with colourful orchestral works, primarily the Roman trilogy, consisting of Fountains of Rome (1916), Pines of Rome (1924), and Roman Festivals (1928). But he composed a lot more: orchestral suites, chamber music, piano music, ballets and operas – and also songs. Some of his earliest published compositions were songs for voice and piano, and the year was 1896, when he was seventeen. Those three songs are included in the present programme. I first came across Respighi as song composer when I in the mid-1960s bought the LP-box “The Art of Tito Gobbi”, where he sang Nebbie, the song that rounds off this recital. Through the years odd songs by him have appeared on mixer recital discs, but all-Respighi recitals are not that common, even though there are some available. There is even a series of “Complete songs for voice and piano” issued on 3 CDs by Channel Classics some fifteen to twenty years ago. Two of the volumes were reviewed on MWI: (Volume 1) and (Volume 3). But this brand-new is certainly welcome, especially since I was full of admiration for Timothy Fallon’s previous disc for BIS, with songs by Franz Liszt (review). Like Respighi, Liszt was better-known for his instrumental music than for his songs, but lately interest has grown also for the songs, and there are many who are willing to positioning him near the top in the long line of important song composers during the 19th century. Whether Respighi belatedly will reach a similar position among the greats of the 20th century is more questionable but judging from what we hear on this disc he has a lot to offer – and competition isn’t as keen as it was in the previous century. Where he definitely can be said to have carved out a niche for himself, is his stylistic versatility – though some would surely rather call it eclecticism. And who said that eclecticism necessarily is a bad thing?
For animals we use “teachable”, and why couldn’t a human be teachable as well? We assimilate impressions from our surroundings, some of it we try out and dismiss, other impressions we adopt and develop. If this programme had been arranged chronologically, we could have followed Respighi’s journey from late romanticism, via impressionism and expressionism to a conglomerate that might be labelled Respighianism. He never accepted the avant-garde currents and repudiated atonalism and dodecaphony. Instead he searched himself back in music history, studied Gregorian chant and Monteverdi, which had a great influence on his own composing. The conglomerate – in the liner notes Ammiel Bushakevitz describes it as “his ability to conjure a kaleidoscopic range of rabbits from his hat, demonstrating a masterful command of writing for the voice.” – is possibly at its most obvious in the short but intensely saturated song cycle Deità Silvane from 1917. He is in his late 30s and has forged together all the impulses he has gathered during his formative years to a mature entity. And Timothy Fallon has in his vocal toolbox the means to do justice to the five songs: the honeyed legato, the dynamic gradations from a whispered pianissimo to a roaring fortissimo. He sometimes sacrifices the beauty of tone for expressivity and risks his vocal cords when he stretches the limits of his natural powers. Add to this his verbal acuity and diction, and we have an ideal interpreter of these songs.
The five individual songs that follow were composed during the years before the great war, and here we can indulge in the expressionist In alto mare, the impressionist Contrasto and the romantic L’ultima ebbrezza, written by the 17-year-old master-to-be, who wallows in the beautiful melody, the slow and beautiful Abbandono, and finally the often heard Stornellatrice, so sensitive and nuanced a reading that one remembers the young Victoria de los Angeles’ recording from 1948.
In the Cinque canti all’antica from 1906 we are in a quite different world, several centuries back in time. The texts are by Boccaccio, Falconieri and Enzo of Sardinia and the music has its roots in the works of Frescobaldi and Monteverdi.
Storia breve (1904) became a favourite of mine. The text is by Ada Negri, whose poems Respighi set several times. The three songs from 1896 were all settings of her poems. Lagrime is lovely – and Francesco Rocchi’s Nel giardino and Vittoria Aganoor Pompilj’s Pioggia should not be missed.
The latest songs in this selection are Quattro arie scozzesi (Four Scottish Songs) from 1924 and they are also the most surprising and, in a way, the most attractive. Respighi visited Scotland and, possibly inspired by Haydn and Beethoven he decided to set some folk songs. As so often in his song oeuvre, the accompaniments are elaborate and virtuosic, and here he juxtaposes harmonies from the 1920s with melodies from ages back. The result is lovely. Timothy Fallon also audibly savours them. Of the remaining three songs O falce di luna calante is a setting of Gabriele D’Annunzio and the other two of Ada Negri. Notturno from 1896 is a lovely piece, and Nebbie from 1906 was his public breakthrough. It has remained his most popular song and Timothy Fallon sings it with great intensity. Ammiel Bushakevitz, besides writing the comprehensive liner notes, makes a heroic contribution behind the Steinway and the recording is, as always with BIS, in the demonstration class.
I’m glad that I got the opportunity to get a deeper knowledge of Respighi’s songs through this disc, and I urge readers to follow my example and give it a chance.
Göran Forsling
Contents
Deità, P 107 (1917)
In alto mare P 89 No. 1 (1909)
Contrasto P 66 (1906)
L’ultima ebbrezza P 8 (1896)
Abbandono P 89 No. 2 (1909)
Stornellatrice P 69 (1906)
Cinque canti all’antica P 71 (1906)
Storia breve P 52 (1904)
Nel giardino P 97 No. 6 (1912)
Pioggia P 90 No. 6 (1909)
Lagrime P 9 (1896)
Quattro arie scozzesi P 143 (1924)
O falce di luns calante P 90 No. 1 (1909)
Notturno P 11 (1896)
Nebbie P 64 (1906)
