Respighi: The Birds Three Botticelli Pictures Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Neville Marrinev, conductor Out of Print

Three Botticelli Pictures was composed in 1926. It was inspired by three well known Boticelli paintings in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. The three are 'La Primavera' (Spring); 'The Adoration of The Magi'; and 'The Birth of Venus'.  Each movement of Resphighi's Trittico botticelliano illustrates a painting by the late 15th century Italian, Botticelli. Respighi translates Botticelli's decorative lines and picturesque images into bird song motifs and pastoral dances. His orchestral colours are brilliant, but his textures remain translucent.

As scion of a family of professional musicians, Respighi inherited a rich talent as part of his birthright. His earliest lessons were with his father, but he progressed so rapidly that he began his professional training in violin, piano and composition at the age of thirteen. As a young man, he was torn between ambitions to become a concert violinist and a composer, and for several years he led a dual life as performer and creator. He got a job as violist with the orchestra of the St. Petersburg Opera and took advantage of the time in Russia to study with Rimsky-Korsakov, whose brilliant orchestral technique was a lasting influence on him. From St. Petersburg, Respighi moved to Berlin to work with Max Bruch on violin and composition, and while there he was befriended by such musical luminaries as Busoni, Fritz Kreisler, Caruso, Paderewski and Bruno Walter. Except for a brief stint back in Berlin in 1908-1909 teaching piano at a private school, Respighi spent the years from 1903 to 1925 in Italy, first as a performer, then as professor of composition and finally as head of the Santa Cecilia Academy in Rome. He left the Academy in 1925 to devote himself to composition and touring, and he made four trips to the United States during the next seven years. He died of a heart attack in 1936 at the age of 56.

Richmond Symphony concert notes
http://www.richmondsymphony.com/programNotes_musiconcanvas.htm

Respighi had an abiding interest in the music and art of earlier times, absorbing not just the style of the works of his Italian and European forebears, but also something of their ethos. In 1932 he was one of ten Italian musicians who issued a document renewing the hallowed traditions of the art: “We are against art which cannot and does not have any human content and desires to be merely a mechanical demonstration and a cerebral puzzle.... A logical chain binds the past and the future — the romanticism of yesterday will again be the romanticism of tomorrow.” In his Three Botticelli Pictures (“Trittico Botticelliano”), Respighi’s interest in the great traditions of Italian art led him to create musical depictions of three of that Renaissance painter’s most masterful canvases. The Triptych was apparently conceived early in 1927. In her biography of her husband, Elsa Respighi recounted that he first mentioned the work in February, when the couple was on their second tour of the United States. Respighi was so taken with the generous patronage of Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, and with the beautiful chamber music hall that she had donated to the Library of Congress (site of Respighi’s Washington concert), that he promised to dedicate his next piece to her — the Botticelli Pictures. He began the score as soon as he arrived home in Rome the following month, and gave the premiere, at a concert in Vienna sponsored by Mrs. Coolidge, later that year.
Each movement of the Triptych is a miniature tone poem that seeks to capture the subject and spirit of a Botticelli painting. Spring (“La Primavera”) is a fantasia on several thematic fragments: ecstatic trills and lusty horn calls with rich sylvan associations; a jolly little tune initiated by the bassoon; a bounding ditty in 6/8 meter shared by the assembled ensemble; and an antique-sounding trio for woodwinds. The Adoration of the Magi (“L’Adorazione dei Magi”) is pastoral and quietly joyful, with a touch of modality that lends it a slightly Oriental flavor. Much of the movement’s thematic material is derived from the haunting Christmas song O Come, O Come, Emanuel, which was based, in turn, on an ancient Church chant for Advent. The closing Picture, The Birth of Venus (“La Nascita di Venere”), is, like Botticelli’s incomparable painting, rapt, undulant, and full of exquisite light.

Ottorino Respighi

Mostly known for his richly descriptive symphonic poems I Fontane di Roma (The Fountains of Rome) and Pini di Roma (The Pines of Rome), Respighi was a versatile composer who translated into music powerful visual experiences and feelings of deep attachment to cherished places. Respighi's symphonic works are praised primarily for their exquisite orchestration, but these compositions also possess a charm which transcends the merely picturesque. This charm is particularly evident in works inspired by Medieval and Renaissance music, such as Ancient Airs and Dances for orchestra. Born in 1879, Respighi studied from 1891 to 1900 at the Liceo Musicale in Bologna. In 1900 and 1902, he traveled to Russia, where he played the viola in the Imperial Orchestra in St. Petersburg. During his two extended visits to Russia, Respighi studied with Rimsky-Korsakov, absorbing the Russian master's ideas regarding orchestral color. In 1903, Respighi turned to a career of a concert violinist; he also played chamber music, joining Bologna's Mugellini Quartet as a violist. During the early 1900s, Respighi started writing music, but his compositions (chamber and orchestral works) attracted little attention. In 1908-09, he was in Berlin, where he immersed himself in German musical culture. In 1913, Respighi settled in Rome, accepting a composition professorship at the Liceo (subsequently Conservatorio) di Santa Cecilia. Enchanted by Rome, Respighi found inspiration in the city's unique atmosphere and consequently formulated an original, personal musical language, exemplified by Fontane di Roma (Fountains of Rome), written in 1914-16. Respighi's next project was a children's opera, La bella dormente nel bosco (Sleeping Beauty), finished in 1921, and regarded as his best stage work. After the Fontane di Roma, Respighi sought inspiration in early music, introducing Renaissance and Medieval themes into his compositions. In 1917, he composed the first set of his Antiche arie e danze per liuto (&Ancient Airs and Dances for Lute), for piano duet and strings. The second and third sets, for strings, were composed in 1923 and 1931, respectively. Sometimes regarded as adaptations, these compositions nevertheless exude a unique freshness and sincerity. Works composed in the 1920s reflected both Respighi's fascination with early music and his desire to translate visual sensations into music. Thus, the Concerto gregoriano for violin and orchestra, composed in 1921, and Quartetto dorico, written in 1924, evoke the spirit of ancient music, while The Pines of Rome describes the splendor of the Roman landscape. In 1924, Respighi was named director of the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia, resigning, however, two years later, so he would have more time to compose. Nevertheless, this period included two American tours, in 1925-26 and 1932, as a conductor and pianist. He also accompanied singers, including his wife, Elsa Olivieri-Sangiacomo, who was also a composer. Works composed during this period include Vetrate di chiesa (Church Windows), for orchestra, written in 1925, and the Trittico botticelliano (Three Botticelli Pictures), composed in 1927 -- a work inspired by three paintings by the great Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli. Composed in 1928-30, Respighi's Lauda per la Nativita del Signore, for two pianos, wind ensembles, vocal soloists, and chorus, develops Renaissance motifs to create a charming, serene celebration of the spirit of Christmas. Elected to the Royal Academy of Italy in 1932, Respighi died in 1936. ~ Zoran Minderovic, All Music Guide

From Bay-Atlantic Symphony program notes: Trittico Botticelliano by Ottorino Respighi

This is a concert piece with programmatic themes which could possibly be lost to the listener without some experience with the art that inspired the music. Here is such an experience.

Let's look first at Botticelli and Respighi.  Respighi was born in Bologna - in northern Italy in 1879 - he was educated in Bologna, St. Petersburg, and Berlin. Because his studies, with teachers like Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Max Bruch, gave him a wide and varied experience, Respighi developed a rather eclectic style of composition - enjoying equal success with opera, chamber and orchestral music. He was made professor of music at the St. Cecelia Conservatory in Rome at the age of 34 and became the school's director just ten years later. He is best known by audiences today for his orchestral music - especially his tone-poems, The Pines of Rome (recently used in the new Disney movie, Fantasia 2000), The Fountains of Rome and Roman Festivals.

The music we will hear from the orchestra is based on the composer's experience with the art of Alessandro Botticelli (1444-1510) the Florentine artist who was once described by his father as being backward and weak in health. Botticelli is best known today for his paintings that have religious and allegorical themes.

Respighi was an Italian composer who introduced Russian orchestral colour and some of the violence of Richard Strauss’s harmonic techniques into Italian music. He studied at the Liceo of Bologna and later with Rimsky-Korsakov in St. Petersburg, where he was first violist in the Opera Orchestra. From his foreign masters Respighi acquired a command of orchestral colour and an interest in orchestral composition.

A piano concerto by Respighi was performed at Bologna in 1902; a "notturno" for orchestra was played at a concert in the Metropolitan Opera House that year. His comic opera Re Enzo and the opera Semirama brought him recognition and an appointment in 1913 to the Sta. Cecilia Academy in Rome as professor of composition. He became director of the conservatory in 1924 but resigned in 1926.

Respighi was drawn to the sensual, decadent climate of the Rome depicted by the poet D'Annunzio. In his celebrated suites, Pini di Roma (Pines of Rome) and Fontane di Roma (Fountains of Rome) especially, he sought to convey the subtlety and colour of the poet’s imagination. Other suites include Vetrate di chiesa (Church Windows); Gli ucelli (The Birds); Feste Romane (Roman Festival); and Trittico Botticelliano (Botticelli Triptych).

Respighi was also drawn to old Italian music, which he arranged in two sets of Antique Dances and Arias (transcribed for orchestra from lute pieces). One of his most popular scores was his arrangement of pieces by Rossini, La Boutique fantasque. As a composer of opera, Respighi had less success outside his own country. His best-known work for the theatre were Belfagor, a comic opera produced at Milan in 1923