COMPOSERS: Respighi
LABELS: Dux
ALBUM TITLE: Respighi
WORKS: Gli uccelli; Il tramonto; Trittico
PERFORMER: Ewa Podle´s (contralto); Wroclaw CO‘Leopoldinum’/Michal Nesterowicz
CATALOGUE NO: 489
Ottorino Respighi is best known
for his three glamorous symphonic
poems evoking historical and/or
picturesque aspects of the city
of Rome, though there’s more to
him than that. These slightly less
familiar works are given worthwhile
performances here, though the
swimmy acoustic doesn’t help
Eva Podle´s articulate the text of
Il tramonto with any clarity. (The
original poem, Shelley’s The Sunset,
is sung in an Italian translation.)
The sound she makes is sometimes
gorgeous, but it also registers as
thick, and the dearth of consonants
robs her vocalism of focus and
meaning. Janet Baker’s classic
version with Richard Hickox is
currently unavailable, but Linda
Finnie’s performance under Raphael
Wallfisch is a good substitute. The
piece itself is strongly atmospheric in its evocation of dusk, death and
emotional loss, with Respighi’s
skills in instrumental colouring are
demonstrated in some particularly
vivid and individual touches.
Elsewhere the arrangements
of a varied selection of short
Baroque pieces in the suite The
Birds still sound attractive, even if
the period-instrument revival has
made Respighi’s more lavish early
20th-century pastiche treatment
sound somewhat quaint. Here the
technically accomplished playing of
the Polish band under the energising
baton of Micha? Nesterowicz is
highly presentable, as it is also in the
fresh and multi-coloured Botticelli
Triptych, which shows Respighi’s
orchestral imagination operating on
an appreciable level. George Hall