September 23, 2015

  • Lesser Known Resphigi

     

    Resphigi: Metamorphosen/Belkis/Ballad of the Gnomes
    Orchestra Philharmonic Royal de Liege/John Neschling
    Bis 2130
    Total Time:  72:15
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    Ottorino Resphigi (1879-1936) was one of the great Italian orchestrator’s of his time.  Today his familiarity rests on three brilliant tone poems often referred to as his “Roman Trilogy”.  Over the past few decades, more of the composer’s catalogue has slowly been recorded often paired with more familiar pieces.  This new BIS release takes a bolder step of a program of three lesser-known works showing off Resphigi’s equally deft orchestral and structural hand.  It is essentially the same program of an older Chandos release with the Philharmonia and Geoffrey Simon.

    First, we hear a performance of Metamorphosen.  This is another of the many great 20th Century works owing a debt to commissioning from Serge Koussevitzky.  In this case it was for the 50th Anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra—part of these commissions would result in Prokofiev’s fourth symphony, Roussel’s third symphony, and Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms.  On one hand this piece is a set of theme and variations spread across twelve different explorations of the ideas presented at the outset of the work.  In another sense, one might also think of this as a “concerto” for orchestra as each section is given this material to transform and shape in interesting combinations.  Sometimes the music enters into rich romanticism with fascinating string writing in particular.  Oddly though, the composer was not as enamored with the work and it sort of fell to the wayside.  This performance is certainly gorgeous and perhaps approaches the music with a more contrapuntal attitude towards delineating individual lines less than trying to make the piece sound like more familiar Resphigi.  When the music needs to enter into the rich harmonic atmosphere, it does so, but the sense is a bit clearer with attention to inner detail.  What happens then is that the piece begins to teeter on that edge between the end of Romanticism and the Neo-Classical/Baroque string writing that was still aesthetically popular even in 1930.  Even the penultimate variation lends that feel.  In this work, one begins to feel Resphigi connecting to the great body of classic Italian orchestral music.  The BIS sound certainly allows this ensemble to shine and the interpretation works fairly well.

    At the center of the program is the little Ballad of the Gnomes (1920) with its nods and pull more to Richard Strauss.  It was composed between the Fountains of Rome and The Pines of Rome and really cannot compete with those more familiar works.  While not “top drawer” Resphigi (it seems almost rambling in its dramatic structure with a few musical “tricks” handled much better elsewhere), it still is filled with great dramatic energy in this symphonic poem further illustrating his mastery of the orchestra.  This particular work was not very successful upon its premiere, but both Arturo Toscanini and Fritz Reiner programmed it from time to time.  Geoffrey Simon resurrected the work in the 1990s and made one of the first digital recordings of it.

    Finally, we move to the suite from Belkis (1934) taken from the ballet about the Queen of Sheba.  It took until the 21st century for a complete recording of the ballet to be made.  Occasionally the suite, or selections from it, appears.  This is music that hearkens back to the great Russian colorists Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin, and Stravinsky.  The sensual opening music for Salome is quite well done.  The final two movements, “War Dance” and “Orgy”, in particular seem to give a nod to the last composer’s own Rite of Spring.  The piece was quite successful in its day.

    When all is said and done, this new BIS release explores three quite different works by Resphigi.  Each certainly reveal the composer’s orchestral style, but they get at more specific aesthetic shifts that the composer employed in his work over the latter couple decades of his life.  The sound is simply wonderful throughout with excellent range and imaging.