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3.0 out of 5 stars
Early stereo recordings revisited, March 24, 2003
This review is from: Respighi: The Fountains Of Rome/The Pines Of Rome/Feste Romane (Audio CD)
The Goosens version of Feste Romane was an early release on Everest Records (#3004) using 35mm wide, sprocketed recording tape putatively designed to capture the huge dynamic range of the tone poem. The transfer to CD isn't first class, but it does satisfactorily capture the energy of the performance. Like a recording of Eugene Ormandy's, this one omits the pipe organ called for in the score. This is (ironically) made up for in spades in Malcolm Sargent's rendering of the other two tone poems, Pines & Fountains, where the organ is arguably more prominent than on any other recording of these works. On the opening movement of Feste Romane (Circenses), Goosens emphasizes pain in the discords (substituting p-ff crescendos for sforzando attacks), his tempi are recklessly fast, and the percussionists were unbridled (esp. the gong player). Percussion takes center stage in the final movement (La Befana), where the xylophone and rattle drive the rhythms forward (virtually the opposite approach to Zubin Mehta's for this sequence). Unrestrained, unrefined, pounding Respighi for those who can appreciate Roman Festivals "with the gloves taken off." Goosens handles the more delicate sections well, bringing out contrasts and emotional depth. Sargent's reading of Pines and Fountains is, for the most part, valuable for revealing what Respighi had written for the pipe organ for these works - that instrument fairly thunders at the climax of Pines. The limitations of early stereophonic recording haven't been transcended in the remastering process, however -- some tinniness and compressed stereo image obtains.
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