Ottorino RESPIGHI (1879-1936)
Concerto all’antica (1908) [30.13]
Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No 1 (1917) [14.16]
Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No 2 (1923) [18.57]
Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No 3 (1931) [17.01]
Davide Alogna (violin)
Chamber Orchestra of New York/Salvatore di Vittorio
rec. 24-28 June 2019, Concert Hall, Adelphi University Performing Arts Centre, New York
NAXOS 8.573901 [81.34]
While by the 1960s the music of Respighi had dwindled in the catalogues to a meagre representation almost entirely confined to two of his trilogy of Roman tone-poems, the past thirty years has seen a remarkable revival of scores that, even during his lifetime, had been effectively lost to sight. Chandos and Marco Polo were two of the labels most responsible for the exploration of this repertoire, and the latter label and its bargain sister Naxos have continued ploughing the field now for many years, not only excavating works that had been neglected for decades but also providing us with first recordings of pieces that have lain unpublished and undiscovered for nearly a century. An early violin concerto “in an ancient style” originally attributed to an anonymous composer was, Respighi admitted, composed principally as a joke at the expense of German critics. It seems to have remained unperformed after its belated 1925 première until the manuscript, now entitled Concerto all’antica, was published in 1990; and this recording represents the first hearing of the work in a newly edited critical version from 2019, supervised by the conductor of this disc.
Respighi was usually dismissive of his earlier scores, but in this instance he seems to have proposed publication as late as 1923 – presumably at the period when neo-classicism was beginning to become the idiom of modern choice for composers throughout Europe. Not that the Concerto all’antica is in any way a really neo-classical work. The principal objective of the movement in the 1920s was to view the style of the eighteenth century through the prism of twentieth century experience; but in 1908 Respighi was content to imitate his baroque models in a manner that borders closely on pastiche, and certainly without the ironic overtones of his later neo-classical contemporaries such as Prokofiev or Stravinsky. The first movement of the concerto, indeed, could have fallen straight out of a Vivaldi manuscript without turning very much of a hair at all. But in the second movement Respighi, clearly falling under the enchantment of the slow movement of Bach’s Double Concerto,
moves into decidedly more romantic territory with an extended cantilena for
his soloist which has what the booklet notes here accurately describe as
“poetical introspection”. And the third movement is equally adventurous, as
the expected rondo structure suddenly expands to include a minuet section
with a decided tilt towards the music of the later classical era rather than exclusively baroque style. The concerto is no masterpiece in the league of Respighi’s later and incomparably more accomplished Concerto gregoriano - but it remains a piece that deserves an occasional hearing, and we should be grateful to Naxos and Salvatore di Vittorio for making it available. (This is not the first such service he has performed for the composer; he was also responsible for the completion of an even earlier violin concerto in A major, which has also been recorded and released on Naxos.) Davide Alogna is here a poised and rhapsodic soloist.
The remainder of the disc comprises the three suites that Respighi compiled under the title Ancient Airs and Dances, which for some unexplained reason are not given in their chronological order. Not that this is important, any more than the order of the three panels in his Roman Triptych which are frequently adjusted by conductors to suit their own predilections; and the second suite, with its larger and more imposing orchestration, makes a suitable finale to the sequence. These suites are quite familiar indeed in performances by more substantial orchestras, and there is certainly no requirement that they should be given by reduced chamber forces in a false attempt to provide an historical image of period practice. But they work well in these performances where the chamber orchestra is expanded to include fourteen violins and other forces in proportion, especially in the chosen resonant acoustic. As such this disc makes an attractive companion to the earlier Naxos release from the same performers, comprising the comparatively well-known chamber-scale Three Botticelli Pictures and The Birds with another newly revived work in the shape of the Suite in G major.
The current extremely well-filled issue includes four pages of booklet notes on the music, but in English only. Respighi fans will have to get it for the sake of the otherwise unavailable Concerto all’antica, but others should also find the performances of the three suites of Ancient Airs and Dances most enjoyable. And all of us should be grateful to Naxos for their continued interest in the exploration of the output of an always fascinating composer.
Paul Corfield Godfrey
