Review: Brilliant's Big Bold Respighi Box
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 4 мар 2021
- OK, these aren't the "best" versions of the more popular works, but they are gutsy, characterful, sometimes a bit deliberate, and chock full of surprises. If you don't know the Concerto a 5, the Concerto gregoriano, Sinfonia Drammatica, Metamophoseon, or Rossiniana, here's a great chance to sample these and other lesser known Respighi pieces. Francesco La Vecchia and the Rome Symphony have their rough edges, but provide plenty of enjoyment without busting your budget.
Видеоклипы
Yes! I’m so glad to hear about this. Respighi is pretty much ignored outside the Roman Trilogy. It’s good to see Church Windows, Ancient Airs..., and Concerto Gregoriano in one place. Too bad Belkis is missing. Neschling does it, I think. Thanks for telling us about this!
I've got a story for when you do your Ancient Airs and Dances show. As a young man in the sixties I bought an odd-looking Vox/Turnabout disc called Music for Mandolin and Guitar Ensemble, by, of course, the "Vienna Mandolin and Guitar Ensemble". It said that it contained works by 4 or 5 early composers I had never heard of. Pleasant music, with the guitars and mandolins as separate choirs playing off against each other, making good use of stereo separation. It was a number of years later that I ran across the Respighi pieces, and realized that the guitar/mandolin pickup group had ripped off the Respighi arrangements without mentioning his name or paying a penny for the rights.
LOL rough and ready it is... As a kid I was really into Lydia Mordkovich’s recording of the Gregoraiano on Chandos. Which was also quite gutsy. Great concerto!
I just love Respighi. There's a lot of his works that are so enjoyable. Just might check this out.
One of the things I like about these talks is how well you choose your musical examples.
The concerto G is my fave piece of all of Resphigi; as you say, utterly gorgeous! Glad I revisited this vid.
Some years ago, your enthusiastic review of Daniel Nazareth's recording of Sinfonia Drammatica on Naxos made me purchase that disc, which became my introduction to his other output, beyond the usual works.
Yes, that is a popular one!!! I listen to it a lot.
Without a doubt this would be a fantastic introduction to Respighi.
I have the ones done on Chandos plus a few others.
Thank you. Those sound fun!
Respighi wrote some bold, brilliant, beautiful stuff, didn't he? I love the Sinfonia Dramatica among many other works here. Thanks for reviewing this box. Shame that Respighi is usually treated as a one-hit, or at least a one-trilogy wonder.
...I've tried and tried but cannot really get into the symphony. It's not the formlessness as I love the rhapsodic nature of that style. Shame as he wrote only the one.
Another orchestral work that is not included is the Piano Concerto in A minor, which is pretty nice. Even farther from being a complete set!
Well, I had posted on one of the FB classical groups asking for recommendations of Respighi's music outside of the Roman tone poems a few months ago. I got some wonderful replies and went ahead and bought the Chandos Sinfonia Drammatica and the Airs. But, I would feel absolutely evil if I also didn't mention the Chandos CD I purchased from those recommendations of his orchestrated songs. Gorgeous! I will check out this box! Thanks for some new recommendations!
Thanks for a kind word about Metamorphoseon. It comes now evidient to me that popularity of any piece is in a lot of cases just subject to a fortune lottery. Metamopheseon is such a wonderful music and a great show-off piece for any orchestra but it literally never gets played in concert halls. At the same time plenty of trashy and third-rate pieces are performed over and over again...
Also an interesting fact, the last movement of Vetrate di chiese resembles Grieg's Klokkeklang, doesn't it?
Personally, I think Metamorphoseon is Respighi’s masterpiece. Don’t get me wrong, I love a lot of his music, but there’s a real depth and subtlety to Metamorphoseon that makes it more than just an orchestral showpiece. It’s astonishingly under-appreciated and ought to be performed instead of the ubiquitous Pines of Rome every once in a while.
I agree with u 1000%. Concerto gregoriano is truly a masterpiece that needs more good performances. It is my most favourite violin concerto ever and the only one I got myself to listen to in entirety....that's how much I loved it!
Hi Dave. Any recommendations for the Three Bach Chorales? Can’t find any here or on classicstoday
I bought this. It is absolutely wonderful. Respighi wrote much more than the Roman Trilogy. If anything, the Concerto Gregoriano is worth the price of the set. Thanks David for this.
So glad you enjoyed it!
@@DavesClassicalGuide And St Michael Arcangelo has a respectable tam tam!
Hello Mr. Hurwitz, I have a question for you that I don't know exactly where to place, so I'm gonna write it right here. I hope you can read it and find it interesting enough to say something about it: why is there so much interest for Western classical music in the East? Especially in Japan, you know, where there is a much bigger market than many European countries. I have never understood. In the West we don't have that same interest in their classical music. Do you have any idea why?
In any case, thank you very much for your videos, for sharing your experience and your knowledge with all of us. Greetings from Madrid.
I honestly don't think I'm the one to say. I have some ideas, but nothing scientific.
Great question
@@DavesClassicalGuide Dave, you're probably wise not to weigh in! I'm East Asian and love classical music, but it's a wholly personal experience for me. No one else in my large family listens to it. They find it quite unpalatable in fact. I wonder though if you could weigh in on how the concert experience can be more enjoyable these days. Every time I attend it's full of old folks, and someone next to me will invariably ask if I'm a student. (I'm 40 years old!) I don't suppose reforming the concert experience is in the cards? I'd like to see younger folks attend. I don't mind nursing home vans letting folks off at the entrance - more power to old people - but having more not-old people inside would be nice! Is this only a problem in America?
I also have this box, very good indeed, the Casella Italian bunch playing but the Chandos cut it better, overall.
The sentence "I Don't Pheel (spelling?) Like Making Any Love" is a way to remember the mode names as found on the "white keys" of the piano, Ionian (major), Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian (minor) and Locrian.
Here's a request Mr. Hurwitz. If you get the time, please do some videos on well tempered clavier, Goldberg variations, french suites, english suites, cello suites, violin sonatas and partitas and so on and so forth!!!
Sounds interesting.
La boutique fantasque is a ballet, ethnically speaking... would be nice for them to release that eventually, and the complete Belkis. Has that even been recorded, the complete ballet?
I said that.
It's a pity Belkis is not included, as it's one of my favourite works by Respighi.
The Chandos recording of the suite is still unbeatable to me. Now, that's hot stuff!
@@AlsoSprach_Zarathustra Indeed. I couldn't agree more.
I was expecting you to confirm us íf the tam-tam strokes at the end of Pines and Windows are audible or dull!!!
Audible, pretty much.
@@DavesClassicalGuide , that's quite good, another reason to get the box.
Not having heard St Michael before i thought it sounded terrifying
Please do a "best recording" video on Respighi's church windows.
You're right, Respighis operas are not really fun. "La fiamma" seems the best, but others did witchcraft-themes better, I must confess. There is one work by Respighi, nearly no one talks about, and I think it's his best: "Belkis". That I call an orgy of sound!
Great talk about one of my guilty-pleasure-composers! Thanks!
Yep, the Roman Poems are rather on a slow side over there
Just came across this. Completely off subject. Anniversary/Birthday of Lorin Maazel. Supposedly there is a well respected recording of Maaze/Cleveland of the most popular Respighi works.
Great Feste.
DH,I did read your review of the Decca box. Maazel/The Cleveland Years. 100%
The only work there I feel that doesn't live up to my expectations is Metamorphoseon because it's too slow (35 minutes long IIRC) if compared with other performances (25-27 minutes long). The Chandos performance of it is just astonishing and thrilling. That's one of those cases where I prefer a fast performance over a slow one.
Fair enough.
I don't like the recordings of the Roman Trilogy with Francesco LaVecchia, he completely left out the impotant organ part.
Oh dear, impotant?
Sorry, I ment important... ;-)
@@stevepillemann9373 As the southern country gentleman explained why he always wore fancy clothes--->
"If the doctor says I'm impotant, I'm gonna look impotant."