Respighi is well-known for his Roman trilogy, Fontane di Roma, Pini di Roma and Feste Romane. These are true orchestral riffs, which stemming from the twenties are standing with a buffalo stance similar to the monumental films of the fifties, in the wide screen format à la Ben Hur. Sound technicians as well as the Hifi scene love to make use these Italian’s symphonic war horses to demonstrate the recording as well as playback possibilities because of their extreme dynamics range from the almost inaudible pianissimo to the extreme fortissimo beyond the pain threshold. The fact that Respighi also wrote chamber music, refined structured orchestral music and operas is almost flattened by the turmoil of his well-known and sought-after trilogy.
The conductor John Neschling has made it his task to counter the widespread prejudice that Respighi has expended himself with the composing of Roman monumental sound monstrosities and is not accessible to the subtle. For his crusade in favor of Respighi's salvation as a serious composer, John Neschling was able to win the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Liège, or OPRL for short. The OPRL, with its 100 musicians, is not exactly the focus of the European orchestra scene. However, it can boast that regional in Belgium and super-regional in the neighboring North of France, to bring classical music culture to the highest level among the people. Thanks to the German / French culture channel ARTE, the OPRL has recently become more and more internationally aware of classic friends. What is the formidable orchestral form of this increasingly internationally perceived ensemble is also reflected in the Respighi cycle, which is being developed on the BIS label and includes the already published trilogy.
The Sinfonia drammatica makes her name as a dramatic symphony all honor: Magnificently structured and dynamically extreme, emotionally charged and stressful, Respighi designs a colored symphonic landscape that is closer to the French than German romanticists, especially since the symphonic form is rather freely developed than strictly realized. Saint-Saëns and Franck, dolled up by Rimski-Korsakov and Richard Strauss, and the just two years away Roman trilogy, similar concerning glaring sound colors, salute in symphonically tautened from according to German ideal. However, a compositional plagiarism cannot be the case with the dramatic symphony, since Respighi finds his own way to build up themes, change them and, if necessary, abruptly terminate them. Nevertheless, Respighi does not seem so fascinated with the symphonic form that he wrote more symphonies. Let us therefore enjoy the Sinfonia drammatica as a unique excursion of the Italian master into the symphonic subject. This is why it is worth taking this excursion.
Respighi has had much more interest in the opera genre than the genre symphony. Of his no less than ten operas, Belfagor falls under the category lyrical comedy. In addition to a prologue, two acts, and an epilogue, the work does not include an overture. The overture played by the OPRL under John Neschling was created after the opera and independent of it as an independent concert piece, which however relates to the theme of the opera. In the circle of Pini di Roma, some of the sound of Pini's perfume is found in the overture, but in the happy surroundings of the lyrical comedy Belfagor, which, in the form of the overture, represents a welcome counterbalance to the gloomy dramatic drama.
Orchestra and conductor deliver first-class work and the recording technology does yours to make this download a pleasure. Respighi would surely have enjoyed the successful interpretation and the colorful, dynamic orchestral play. On the continuation of the Respighi cycle with the OPRL under John Neschling one may be anxious.
Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liege
John Neschling, conductor