Customer Reviews

Respighi: Pini diRoma / Fontane di Roma / Feste Romane

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

 

 

Riccardo Muti's recording of Respighi's "Roman Trilogy" with the Phildelphia Orchestra has had different views from different publications over the years. A 1986 review in STEREO REVIEW referred to Muti's recording as "Spectacular", but a 1996 AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE review called it "over-rated, and a recording with no real bass" (referring to the engineering). I tend to view it in a more favorable light than the ARG reviewers; Muti conducts with tremendous flair, and if he glosses over some high points in the excitement of the moment, I consider this a great recording, worthy to stir the senses for the moment, which Respighi, like Richard Strauss in his tone poems, should do.

I can't give you a blow by blow description of how Muti does each movement within each work, but he has a great building climax in IV of "Pines of Rome." "Fountains" is more reflective, while "Festivals" is truly savage, and really barbaric in I, depicting the torture and slaughter of Christians at the hands of the gladiators in the Colusseum.

In short, I give Muti's Respighi 5 stars for performance, 4 stars for sound:the bass is a bit diffuse, as ARG's reviewers pointed out.

Alternatives? Ormandy/Philadelphia (Sony) for all 3; Ozawa/Boston (DG) for "Festivals" (maybe hard to find now); Gatti/Santa Cecilia (EMI) for all 3, in digital sound which is state of the art.

Having heard both Muti's and Dutoit's Respighi excursions, Muti gets the nod as the best Roman trilogy on CD. The first reviewer lamented lost impressionistic detail in the Muti that Reiner, and later Dutoit, allegedly bring out. This is only partially true -- sometimes the contrast is not between detail and no-detail, but rather on emphasis. De gustibus non disputandum - there's no disputing a matter of taste. If there's a reference recording to reflect Respighi's intent, it would have to be that of his good friend, Toscanini. And Toscanini was never happy with the inability of recording engineers to handle Respighi's intent (neither with the same Philadelphia orchestra Muti conducts here, nor with the NBC Symphony). It's fair game to extrapolate from this. Rhythm does dominate Muti's interpretation; the "acceleration" alluded to by another reviewer sometimes occurring in surprisingly effective places (the beginning of the final saltarello of Feste Romane, for example). It's hard to tell how truly "authentic" either Muti or Dutoit is; e.g., it's not clear that they're using actual buccine in Pines or Festivals (Argeo Quadri apparently did). Arguably better detail is achieved by Ozawa or Tilson Thomas, but one must rule on the overall interpretation as opposed to indulging in tunnel vision. (One reviewer commends Muti's slower tempo on the finale of Pines, but it's noteworthy that Toscanini's tempo was significantly faster, presumably reflecting Respighi's preference.)

This is THE BEST recording of the Pines of Rome and the Fountains of Rome and Roman Festivals that you will find. This is why: When you mix Riccardo Muti with Glenn Dodson, Joe Alessi, and Charles Vernon you get an amazing recording. These pieces are some of the most exciting in the repetoire and Philadelphia steps up to it. To many times have I heard people take Pines of the Appian Way too fast, including the "praised" Dutoit recording. Personally, I just don't think that Montreal has the brass section to even hold a candle to Philadelphia's. Please don't pass up this recording for Dutoit's. I've heard them and like I said, it just can't compete with this. It is this recording alone that made me look for Muti/Philadelphia recordings before anyone else. TRUST ME! This is the one. These pieces were written for the mighty Rome and there is no mightier a brass section than this one. On a scale from 1 to 10, this is a.... oh, wait you can't count as high as this recording should be. You can't beat Dodson, Alessi, and Vernon. I mean come on! This recording should have as many stars as there are in space. Pines, Fountains, and Festivals are exciting and loud, so you shouldn't pass this one up!!!

I have this on LP, but only have two of them on CD. Fountains is with Shcheherezade, and Pines is with the Romeo & Juliet suites. I don't have Festivals on CD. I do remember the LP being somewhat problematic in terms of sound, and hoped that CD would clear that up. Fountains seems to have worked, but Pines still seems a bit congested. Muti's Philly does play wonderfully, regardless.

Reiner is stil splendid, and I don't mind the sound. Ozawa is a nice way to get all 3, but Maazel/Cleveland (no Fountains) really works the best. Most people rave about his Festivals, but I also love his Pines, especially the Appian Way. His Pittsburgh version (all 3) is also great. Ormandy is OK on a budget, but DeWaart/SanFran, Lane/Atlanta, Com misiona/Baltimore are not. They don't contain all 3, and there are pacing, ensemble, intonation issues. Dutoit just sounds like a run-through. I got a number of Du-what's recordings in the 80's, and they seem so overrated. Their longevity is severely lacking.
I'd say, go ahead with Muti, but don't be surprised if you find that ultimately, you prefer someone else. Of course, he could do it just the way you want it, and you can certainly do worse!

This CD was one of the first CDs I purchased after I switched from vinyl. I had been used to an older RCA Victrola recording with Reiner and the Chicago Symphony of the three Roman Tone Poems. I have been a frequent traveller to Rome all my life and when I first listened to these splendid works I associated my personal experiences with Respighi's orchestral visions. I was really disappointed by this recording, so much so that I only played it a few times after I realized that I did not like Muti's heavily personalised rendition of these works I knew so well. To my mind this was a young conductor's recording. Muti takes the orchestra at a breakneck pace and they do brilliantly to keep up with him. It seems as if he wants to see how fast the works will go or they felt they would be stretched in getting all three works on one CD. He is a true modern interpreter, shearing off the dated romantic 'excess' that people of his generation feel as de trop. Thus, the luscious side of Respighi's orchestration, that sensual impressionistic inheritance from Debussy is lost or at least diluted in the orchestral flight and certain details of Respighi's score are lost due to the breakneck speed of the performance which doesn't allow the listener to comprehend them in real time. This is not only apparent in Respighi's slower episodes either. For example, in the coda and close of the Feste Romane. Here Respighi takes his orchestral mastery to a new height, depicting the revelries of the Befana festival. The garish effects are created by Respighi laying several layers of orchestral coat which are played at different speeds first. The orchestral climaxes are capped by swirling woodwind and its effect on me at the very end is to sit silently and say inwardly,'Wow!' This recording focused primarily on the acceleration and pace of the work to the detriment of the colouristic and harmonic detail. Therefore my searching ear did not pick up those choice subtle pieces of Respighi's depiction of this bacchanal. At first, I assumed that the reason I preferred the Reiner was that I had heard it first and knew the reading. However, on subsequently hearing the Decca version by Dutoit and the Orchestre symphonique de Montreal released in the 1980s I realised this was not the case. This was better than the Reiner version in both recording quality (of course) and interpretation. Dutoit reveals the pure Latin intensity of this romantic music. He languishes in its sensuality. The Gregorian melodies are magnificent. The brass is blazing. If you want to hear the true glories of the music and not behold the lionised ego of a world famous conductor do not buy this version. I would suggest that you invest in a copy of the Dutoit who understands the balance in Respighi's works and brings out the detail without losing the clarity that Respighi, a student of Rimsky-Korsakov, wanted you to hear. I have a copy of this CD if anybody wants it for I never play it.

This is a great recording of Respighi's "Roman Trilogy." I wrote a review of Lorin Maazel's reading on Sony, but I think Muti's interpretation here is much better. It's definitely more exciting. A reviewer said Muti's "Pines of Rome" was disappointing. I disagree as this is one of the finest "Pines" I've heard so far. Muti seems completely in his element here and he's certainly not a conductor I listen to very often, but his Scriabin is outstanding and now I can concur with the glowing reviews found all over the Internet that say this is one of the finest Respighi recordings.

I give this recording 4 1/2 stars. I'm withholding 1/2 star for the audio quality. While it's not bad, it's certainly not outstanding. The Philadelphia Orchestra play great here and it's a true marvel to witness this orchestra in all it's glory. With Muti at the helm, the Philadelphia Orchestra got away from that smooth string sound they perfected with Ormandy. Muti seemed to focus on all of the sections of the orchestra and how they reacted and sounded with each other. They had a beautiful sound under Muti.

Obviously this recording is out-of-print and if you can't find an original, then it can be purchased in a 2-CD set from EMI now:

Respighi: Roman Trilogy; Gli Uccelli; Trittico Botticelliano; La Sensitiva

Listening to Ottorino Resphigi's trilogy 'Pini di Roma', 'Fontane di Roma', and 'Feste Romane' was quite a surprise to me, as I 'unconsciously filed Resphigi away in my musically dillantish mind as a much earlier, possibly even Renaissance composer! One listen to the opening phrases had me dashing to check the composer's dates, when I heard things which sounded remarkably like very modern composers, especially Richard Strauss and even Aron Copeland. I was embarrased to realize how obviously similar Resphigi's 'tone poem' genre was similar to Strauss, and how similar he was, therefore, to so much modern film music. While Resphigi is much more sophisticated than any movie score, I can almost hear precursors to, for example, Howard Shore's scores for 'The Lord of the Rings' here and there. I can definitely hear similarities to Copeland's 'Nantucket Sleighride'! This is not 'great' music, in the same category as 'The Rites of Spring' or Berg's violin concerto or Bartok's third piano concerto, but it is good and it is enjoyable. I'm glad I got around to actually listening to it!

I can't believe I have the same recording! The Fountains and Festivals are wonderful. They are the reasons to buy this disc. Dissatisfaction with the sound quality is, no doubt, because the Philadelphia Orchestra had no suitable venue for recording. The notes say that this was recorded at Memorial Hall. Philadelphians know that this so-called hall is a gymnasium. That's the best we could do for one of the world's greatest artistic treasures. But these two performances are fantastic.

But, to me, Pines is one of the great landmarks of music in this era. And this rendition of Pines is just awful. There is not one second of music in the entire first movement. Yes, it is impressive that the orchestra could stay, more-or-less, together at that tempo. But the musicians sound like they are keeping up with the conductor, not playing together. All of the movements lack musical nuance. This recording is vulgar and insensitive. While I blame this on the conductor, he certainly wasn't responsible for the clams heard in later movements. I am far more interested in an artistic performance than I am in technology. So I favor Reiner's Pines over all others. It is inspiring. Who cares if it is early stereo?

A note about the trombone section featured in a previous review: The trombone section is, in fact, outstanding throughout this disc. In Philadelphia, we were so lucky to have those years with Joe Alessi and Charley Vernon along with Glenn Dodson and Tyrone Breuninger (a fine associate principal for many years). However, Joe Alessi was long gone by the time this recording was made in 1985. If the recording was made during the '84-'85 season, the second trombone part was played by David Read. If it was made during the '85-'86 season, the second part was played by Edward Zadrozny. With Alessi's big shoes to fill, both of these musicians were phenomenal during their one-year stints in Philadelphia. Unfortunately, there is a dearth of recordings made by the two years that Dodson, Breuninger, Alessi, and Vernon were together. The only one that comes to mind is Sheherezade with Muti conducting. For trombone enthusiasts, that recording is particularly interesting because it features the future NY Philharmonic principal playing the second trombone solo.