Customer Reviews

Ottorino Respighi: Roman Festivals / The Fountains of Rome / The Pines of Rome - Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia / Daniele Gatti

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the best recording and interpretation of these much loved works available. I bought this on the recommendation of Gramophone magazine, and it doesn't disappoint. Having lived in Rome for two years, listening to this disc transports me back to the time and evokes thoughts and feelings from when I was there. I lived on Janiculum Hill and the "Pines of the Janiculum" on this disc puts a perfect image in your mind of what it is really like. Isn't that the magic you look for in music? The Santa Cecilia Academy is quickly becoming a world class orchestra once again under Gatti, and it is encouraging to know Italian musicians can still bring the best insight into Italian music. An amazing accomplishment. Don't hesitate if you like these works.

I've heard Reiner, Toscanini, Karajan, Maazel (both Cleveland & Pittsburg), Jansons, Muti, Sinopoli, Tortelier, Ormandy (both RCA & CBS), Ozawa, Dutoit, and even Bernstein in various incarnations of this music. While they all have their own merits, every single one of them has something that keeps me from being eminently satisfied, whether it be sound quality, orchestral execution, or a conductor who just doesn't get it.

Enter Gatti and the Saint Cecelia Academy, and the search for my personal "definitive" version is over. As has been mentioned on this page already, the orchestra, for being no better-known than it is, is surprisingly world-class. My experiences with Italian woodwinds, especially, have not left a good taste in my mouth. This orchestra, however, plays with a wonderfully refined sound and enough power to have me finding a building-foundation repair company in my phone book.

The best part, however, is Gatti's interpretation. He is the only conductor I have ever heard who seems to actually "experience" the little stories behind each of Respighi's tableaux and allow himself the flexibility to do so. As a major climax approaches, he might slow down ever so slightly and allow the listener a chance to revel in the moment, rather than just charge through it, stubbornly refusing to change the tempo one iota like a more "objective" conductor might do.

Or, as a woodwind solo or the violin section stretches for that top note at the peak of the melodic line, he might pause just a hairsbreadth and allow us to "float" for just a split second before we come back down again.

It's little tiny details such as this that, to most listeners, will feel as natural as breathing that separates this wonderful version from the rest. After listening to this version, I have the impression of having actually been to Respighi's Rome.

The other versions, in various degrees of excellence, nevertheless seem like a postcard by comparison.

This comparison is of the Pines of Rome. These two recordings sound quite a bit different in terms of both sound and performance. Indeed, it is difficult to determine just how much the sound affects the perception of the performance from how much the performance affects the perceived sound of the recording. Are perceptions all or only what they are perceived to be?

In the first movement ("The Pines of the Villa Borghese") the sonic contrast is stark. The Gatti has better center fill, and at least to these ears, a better integration of the percussion parts into the sound overall of the orchestra. However, the Conifer sound is somewhat distant, a bit veiled-sounding--you just want to keep turning it up in order to hear everything. But what sound that is there is clean. The Reiner sounds much different. The sound is bright, forward, much more locked onto the two speakers, especially the percussion. But the bass is richer, and there is a better sense of the hall, even with the more close-up perspective.

Toward the end of the movement, there is a percussion part that really stands out in the Reiner performance--but which is virtually inaudible in the Gatti. It can barely be heard, and it was not until I noticed it so prominently in the Reiner that I was able to hear it in the Gatti. It is almost as if either Gatti removed it from the score or Reiner added it -- or was it their engineers? (I checked the Maazel/Pittsburgh version on Sony for a third opinion. The drum part was there, subdued, but still more prominent than in the Gatti.)

Why do I make a fuss about this small snare part? Because hearing it--or not hearing it--makes quite a difference in the music. Reiner, or his engineers, thought the part was important, something in the score that should be distinctly heard. Gatti, or his engineers, seemed to find the part something that deserved to be way in background, barely audible. The net effect is that the Reiner version sounds much different from the Gatti during these measures, both sonically and musically.

Jumping ahead to the third movement ("The Pines of the Janiculum"), my notes again point to the contrasts I heard. In keeping with my earlier remarks about the percussion sound in the first movement, I found an excellent use of the piano in the Gatti, with the piano sound blended in nicely with the orchestra, and I found the performance more expansive--and more compelling. Later, I checked timings and found that Gatti took 7:31, while Reiner made it through in a quicker 6:29. This tempo difference really affects the character of the music; overall, I prefer Gatti's approach.

But I could not deny that the Reiner just had a richer sound -- even though it was more spotlighted, and the background was not as grainless as the Gatti. The old RCA recording showed its age here, with some tape hiss evident. If we could somehow combine the RCA richness of sound with the purity and integration of the Conifer sound, we'd really have something! Still, both sounded good in their own respective ways.

In the final movement, ("The Pines of the Appian Way"), I'm not sure whether any conductor has ever matched Reiner's way of making the sound of the approaching Roman legions sound more menacing. The RCA recording, with its emphasis on deep bass, really helps here. Still, the sound on the Gatti also seemed very rich in this movement, and the distant recording framed the sound picture well. At the very end of the piece, the Reiner seems slightly compressed, while the Gatti, although not so spectacular because it is more distant, seems to swell more naturally.

No, it is not easy to pick between these two recordings of The Pines of Rome. The Gatti CD sounds more natural overall, but never quite exciting enough compared to the Reiner. But the Reiner never sounded quite as natural, and I really preferred Gatti's way with the slower sections. Overall, I had a slight preference for the Gatti in The Pines, but would enjoy listening to Reiner from time to time, particularly because it does sound so different, and so exciting.

However, if I were forced to choose just one of these CDs to live with, the Gatti wins pretty much by default, because the Reiner is under a severe handicap -- the Debussy La Mer, nice at it is, simply does not belong on this disk, while Gatti's disk gives you the complete Roman trilogy, a much preferable program, at least to my way of thinking. I (and, I suspect, many readers) already have plenty of good recordings of La Mer in my CD collection, and do not need another La Mer stuck in with Respighi.

Overall, then, I would pick the Gatti by a slight margin, while conceding that in many ways, the Reiner is the more exciting disk both musically and sonically. However, truth be told, with an overall sonic perspective similar to the Gatti, but with slightly better bass, and less veiling, the Maazel/Pittsburgh recording of the Roman trilogy (Sony Classical SK 66843) eclipses the Gatti by a slight margin, and the new Telarc recording by López-Cobos is truly outstanding sonically, although the performance is a bit restrained (by audiophile standards, anyway, as some of the big moments are not played for maximum sonic impact).

I bought this CD early in my classical music loving days because I wanted a recording of one of the pieces in our HS marching band show. Appian Way, the Grandioso finale from Pines of Rome, did not disappoint me in the least.
The way this CD was recorded necessitates turning up the volume really loud in some spots, because the quiet passages are really quiet and the loud passages are stentorian to say the least.
These are Respighi's best works, grandly and beautifully evocative of festivals, fountains, and ferns (fine, pines, but I was going for alliteration), and this recording is one of the better ones. I won't give it a five-star rating, but it's definitely up there.

Respighi's "Roman Trilogy" has been the basis of "demonstration-quality" recording jobs since the days of LP. Here's another--it'll make even the hairs on the back of the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. However, I'm less enthralled by the performance, which, for all the supposedly "authentic" atmosphere provided by an Italian conductor and Roman orchestra, is pretty slack.