Download Pines of Rome - Seattle Symphony

PROGRAM NOTES by Paul Schiavo
OTTORINO RESPIGHI
Pini di Roma (“Pines of Rome”)
BORN: July 9, 1879, in Bologna
DIED: April 18, 1936, in Rome
WORK COMPOSED: 1924
WORLD PREMIERE: December 14, 1924, in Rome, conducted by Bernardino Molinari.
Until fairly recently, opera so completely dominated the musical life of Italy that only one Italian
composer during the past two centuries achieved prominence through his orchestral music. This
was Ottorino Respighi, whose fame rests chiefly on a series of tone poems depicting scenes in his
native country. Pini di Roma (“Pines of Rome”), composed in 1924, has long been the most
popular of these works.
Respighi’s music reflects a fascinating variety of influences. Like many composers who came of
age around the turn of the century, he assimilated the harmonic language of both Wagner and
Debussy, as well as some of the former’s dramatic flair. From Rimsky-Korsakov, with whom he
studied in Saint Petersburg, he learned a bold and colorful use of the orchestra. The most unusual
aspect of Respighi’s compositional outlook, however, was his interest in pre-Classical music. In
such works as his Ancient Airs and Dances and the Concerto Gregoriano for violin and orchestra,
the composer showed a surprising readiness to incorporate church modes, plainchant, simple
contrapuntal textures and other archaic devices into his own music.
“Pines of Rome” reveals all these elements of Respighi’s style. This tone poem presents four
tableaux, which the composer depicts through suggestive melodies, rhythms and textures.
Respighi described the scenarios of the four movements as follows:
I. “The Pines of the Villa Borghese.” Children are at play in the pine grove of the Villa
Borghese, dancing the Italian equivalent of Ring-Around-the-Rosy, mimicking marching
soldiers and battles, twittering and shrieking like swallows at evening, then disappearing.
Suddenly the scene changes to —
II. “Pines Near a Catacomb.” We see the shadows of the pines overhanging a catacomb.
From the depths rises a chant that re-echoes solemnly, sonorously like a hymn, and then is
mysteriously silenced.
III. “The Pines of the Janiculum.” There is a thrill in the air. The full moon reveals the
profile of Gianicolo’s Hill. A nightingale sings (represented by a recording of a nightingale’s
song, heard from the orchestra).
IV. “The Pines of the Appian Way.” Misty Dawn on the Appian Way. The tragic country is
guarded by solitary pines. Indistinctly, incessantly, the rhythm of innumerable steps. To the
poet’s fantasy appears a vision of past glories; trumpets blare and the army of the Consul
advances brilliantly in the grandeur of the newly risen sun toward the sacred way, mounting
in triumph the Capitoline Hill.
WHAT TO LISTEN FOR: In the first movement, Respighi depicts the raucous play of the children
through brief melodic figures blared forth by the woodwinds and brass. The scene by a catacomb
features a melody in the style of a Gregorian chant, which swells and then subsides through a
series of repetitions.
The third movement evokes the nocturnal serenity of the Janiculum, Rome’s beautiful hilltop
park, in a haunting clarinet solo. The birdsong heard during this portion of the work is probably
the first use of recorded sounds in an orchestral composition. Finally Respighi employs his
favorite format for closing movements, beginning quietly with a modest theme and slowly
expanding it in an imposing crescendo.
Scored for 3 flutes, the third doubling piccolo; 2 oboes and English horn; 2 clarinets and bass
clarinet; 2 bassoons and contrabassoon; 6 horns, 4 trumpets, 3 trombones and tuba; timpani and
percussion; organ, piano and celeste; harp and strings.
© 2016 Paul Schiavo