2012-2013 Demirjian Classical Connections Series Concert One: September 14, 2012 Program: “Ottorino Respighi's Roman Odyssey"
Respighi Listener’s Guide
Welcome to the 17th season of Classical Connections,
made possible thanks to generous support from music lovers
Patti and Chuck Demirjian. With the new Dayton Performing Arts Alliance uniting the Philharmonic with Dayton
Ballet and Dayton Opera, I expect that some of you may be new to Classical Connections. So let me explain how
this works, even if it’s old hat for you CC veterans.
I’m in music for one simple reason: when I was a kid I watched Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts on
TV. I loved how Lenny explained the music, took it apart, then put it back together. I was shocked and disappointed
to discover that not all concerts were like that! When I became a conductor I vowed to create
something like those Bernstein concerts, but live, not on TV, and for grown-ups, not (just) for
kids. The first of these talk-and-play programs was 21 years ago in Milwaukee. Since then I’ve
done them in Milwaukee (eight seasons), Phoenix (three seasons), and Dayton (16 seasons,
going on 17).
Classical Connections programs usually focus on a single work by a single composer. While
we focus on “the greats”, I also like to use this series to introduce you to new or unfamiliar
works and to argue for wonderful composers who don’t get the respect they deserve. Like
Ottorino Respighi, subject of our season-opening program.
You’ll hear three examples of Respighi’s genius: the wild War Dance from his 1934 ballet
Belkis, Queen of Sheba; Botticelli Triptych, a 1927 masterpiece for chamber orchestra; and his
best-loved work, the brilliant 1924 tone-poem Pines of Rome.
So let’s get busy, making some classical connections with
Italy’s impressionist master, Ottorino Respighi!
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For centuries, composers have known
that one of the best instruments they can
write for is the listener’s imagination.
Violin trills in Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons
become bird calls. Fast repeated notes
in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion become
an earthquake. A timpani roll in
Elgar’s Enigma Variations becomes the
thrumming of an ocean liner’s engines.
Ottorino Respighi was an accomplished
violinist, violist, and pianist. But his
virtuoso instrument was the imagination.
Respighi’s catalogue contains some pieces
of “just music” (Symphony in E, Piano
Concerto, Toccata), but the majority of
his compositions—and all of his best-
known works—are program music.
Program music tells a story and plays
on the listener’s imagination. The two
main works on September’s Classical
Connections program are prime
examples.
We’ll spend time on concert night
exploring the ins and outs of Pines of
Rome—the brilliant orchestration and the
myriad images the music evokes (playing
children, chanting monks, chirping
nightingales, Caesar’s legions on the
march). Here in the Listener’s Guide, I’d
like to devote a little extra attention to
the bonus piece on “Ottorino Respighi’s
Roman Odyssey”: Botticelli Triptych.
This piece (often referred to by
its mellifluous Italian title, Trittico
Botticelliano) was inspired by three
Botticelli masterpieces that hang in
Florence’s Uffizi Gallery: La Primavera,
Adoration of the Magi, and The Birth of
Venus. Each movement works on two
levels: first, as a translation of Botticelli’s
images into music; second, as a trigger for
the listener’s imagination.
Botticelli’s La Primavera illustrates
spring both literally and metaphorically.
We see a beautiful garden filled with
trees, flower petals, and fruit. We also see
a nymph, the three Graces dancing in a
circle, Cupid aiming his arrow, a flower-
bedecked woman who looks radiantly
pregnant, Mercury standing guard, and
Venus presiding over the entire scene.
Respighi’s vivacious music captures the
kinetic energy of the painting: swirling
trills and swooping scales, energetic horn
calls, lilting dance figures. The trills
and scales suggest Cupid in flight (also
Zephyrus, the March wind, swooping
in from the right). But in the listener’s
imagination, that same music can have a
completely different meaning. I hear birds
(something strangely absent the painting),
especially those big flocks of birds you see
in springtime, sweeping across the sky in
thrilling unison.
P R O G R A M
DEMIRJIAN
CLASSICAL CONNECTIONS
Friday, September 14, 20128:00 p.m. Schuster Center
Q&A after the concert Neal Gittleman conductor, host
Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936)
Belkis, Queen of Sheba: War Dance
Botticelli Triptych I. Spring
II. The Adoration of the Magi III. The Birth of Venus
Pines of Rome I. Pines of the Villa Borghese
II. Pines Near a Catacomb III. Pines of the Gianiculum IV. Pines of the Appian Way
Series Sponsor Dr. Charles & Patricia Demirjian
Series Media Sponsor Dayton City Paper
Official Automobile The Bob Ross Dealerships
Official Hotel Dayton Marriott
Season Media Partners ThinkTV | Classical WDPR 88.1Concert Broadcast on WDPR 88.1,
October 20, 2012 at 10:00 a.m. classical connections listener's guide
© neal gittleman, 2012
B Y N E A L G I T T L E M A N
The Music of Imagination
Ottorino Respighi
Ottorino Respighi’s Roman Odyssey
Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy
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La Primavera shows Respighi
mirroring Botticelli, but Adoration of
the Magi shows him all but ignoring the
painting. The painting is a busy daytime
scene with 29 people, two horses, and a
peacock clustered around Jesus, Mary,
and Joseph. But Respighi’s music is a
quiet nocturne, as if the three wise men
have a private audience with the Holy
Family. Once again, manipulating the
listener’s imagination is key.
Adoration of the Magi has three
“a-ha!” moments for the listener.
Respighi presents something, gives you
a chance to think about what you’re
hearing, then brings a smile to your face
as you figure it out.
One: “Hey, isn’t that ‘O Come, O
Come, Emmanuel”? (Yes, it is!) “Isn’t
that an Advent hymn?” (Yes, it is!)
“Isn’t Advent about getting ready for
the Nativity?” (Yes, it is!) “And doesn’t
Advent also include the wise men setting
out on the journey from the East?”
(Yes, it does!)
Two: a jaunty march for the magi’s
journey to Bethlehem. It has an oriental
feel (as in “We three kings of orient
are.”) And it has three distinct musical
themes, (wait for it!) one for each
magus.
Three: a beautiful bassoon solo. If
you know your Italian Christmas carols
(and Respighi assumes that you do),
you’ll recognize it as “Tu scendi dalle
stele” (“You Came Down from the
Stars”). If you know only the familiar-
in-the-U.S. carols, you won’t recognize
it. But NOW you know what lovely tune
Kristin Smith is playing so beautifully!
The final movement of Respighi’s
triptych asks the most of the listener’s
imagination. Botticelli’s Birth of Venus
depicts the naked goddess arriving at
the shore on her clamshell, greeted by a
maiden ready to shroud her in a cloak
as soon as she makes landfall. It’s more
Venus Disembarks than her birth!
Respighi’s music turns the painting
into a thrilling journey. Hushed
murmurings depict the gentle breezes
and calm sea at dawn. The music
gradually gathers momentum until you
hear Venus surfing towards shore, hair
blowing in the wind (as opposed to
Botticelli’s far more modest use of her
hair). Suddenly the music stops and
Respighi returns to the gentle sounds of
the opening.
Yes, he says, it was all in your
imagination!
The Birth of Venus
Adoration of the Magi
La Primavera
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A Respighi Timeline
1879 July 9, born in Bologna to piano teacher Giusieppe Respighi and
Ersilia Putti Respighi, descended from a family of sculptors.
1887 Begins piano and viola lessons
with his father.
1889 Enters Bologna Conservatory,
studying violin and, later, composition.
1900 Plays viola in the St. Petersburg
Imperial Theatre Orchestra. Studies composition and orchestration
with Rimsky-Korsakov.
1903 Returns to Bologna, working as an orchestral musician and composer.
1913 Joins the composition faculty of
Rome’s Santa Cecilia Conservatory.
1915 Composes Fountains of Rome,
the first of three Rome-themed tone-poems.
1919 Marries singer and composer
Elsa Sangiacomo, who had been his student. Elsa becomes Respighi’s
biographer and a passionate advocate for his music.
1924 Completes Pines of Rome.
1927 Composes Botticelli Triptych and begins work on Roman Festivals.
1936 April 18, dies in Rome of heart disease, leaving his last opera, Lucrezia nearly finished. Elsa finishes the work, assisted by
oneof Respighi’s pupils.
1879 First Woolworth’s Store opens in Utica, NY. Ibsen’s A Doll’s House.
Edison demonstrates first light bulb. Madison Square Garden opens.
1887 Annie Sullivan spells “WATER”
for Helen Keller.
1889 Benjamin Harrison inaugurated 23rd U.S. President. Wall Street Journal’s Volume 1, Number 1.
1900 Max Planck introduces quantum
theory. Baseball’s American League begins play. First Davis Cup tennis
tournament. Boxer Rebellion.
1903 First Tour de France.
Two Ohio brothers fly a plane.
1913 16th Amendment allows
federal income tax.
1915 “Typhoid Mary” starts a disease outbreak in New York. Congress
creates U.S. Coast Guard.
1919 Prohibition begins. Monet paints
water lillies. Walter Gropius founds Bauhaus movement.
Black Sox scandal rocks baseball. (“Say it ain’t so, Joe!”).
1924 First Winter Olympics.
1927 Lindbergh flies from New York to Paris. Jolson sings on film.
1936 Spanish Civil War begins. Boulder Dam completed.
Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times. Margaret Mitchell’s
Gone With the Wind.
From age seven until college, I spent most summers at my parents’ vacation home in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. From age 10 until college, we were full-time New Englanders, living first in Vermont and then in suburban Boston.
Back then most northeasterners avoided talking religion or politics. Maybe that’s why I try to steer clear of those topics in Classical Connections, too!
But sometimes they can’t be avoided. We couldn’t do a CC program on Bach’s St. Matthew Passion without talking religion. Nor could we talk about Shostakovich’s Eleventh Symphony without talking Soviet-era politics.
With Pines of Rome, politics intrudes again, because Benito Mussolini LOVED Respighi’s imposing musical depictions of Roman grandeur.
But composers can’t be held responsible for the crazy ideas of their fans—unless they share those crazy ideas. And Respighi didn’t.
The Respighi-Mussolini case parallels the more notorious Wagner-Hitler case. Just as Mussolini loved Pines of Rome (and Fountains of Rome and Roman Festivals) and tried to associate himself with them, so Hitler tried to use Wagner’s music for political purposes. The key difference is that Wagner died six years before Hitler was born, whereas Respighi lived and worked in Italy during the first 14 years of Il Duce’s reign.
There were Italian musicians—conductor Arturo Toscanini in particular—who took a public stand against fascism. Respighi was not one of them. He was no more a fascist than Shostakovich was a Stalinist, but his reputation has suffered because he kept his head down and stayed quiet. Respighi didn’t make a scene when Mussolini used his Rome-themed works as propaganda. Easy for us to criticize. Not so easy to have been in Respighi’s shoes.
Fascism’s most insidious quality is that it twists noble attributes (national and cultural identity, patriotism, pride, family) into tools to spread its evil message. Music, too. So the finale of Pines of Rome, with its glorious musical vision of Caesar’s army triumphantly marching up the Appian Way was perfect for Mussolini’s propaganda machine.
When I hear Respighi’s Roman pieces—or the Botticelli Triptych—I hear a great composer inspired by his homeland—its beauty, its history, its culture. Maybe you hear the music of a weak man who didn’t have the courage to stand up to evil.
Sounds like we might have an interesting post-concert discussion!
Music and Politics (Italian Style)