Muti: Respighi – Pini di Roma, Fontane di Roma, Feste Romane (APE)

Composer: Ottorino Respighi
Orchestra: Philadelphia Orchestra
Conductor: Riccardo Muti
Audio CD
SPARS Code: DDD
Number of Discs: 1
Label: EMI
Size: 225 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: no

# Pini di Roma (The Pines of Rome), symphonic poem, P. 141
Composed by Ottorino Respighi
Performed by Philadelphia Orchestra
Conducted by Riccardo Muti

# Fontane di Roma (The Fountains of Rome), symphonic poem, P. 106
Composed by Ottorino Respighi
Performed by Philadelphia Orchestra
Conducted by Riccardo Muti

# Feste romane (Roman Festivals), symphonic poem, P. 157
Composed by Ottorino Respighi
Performed by Philadelphia Orchestra
Conducted by Riccardo Muti

Different views from different publications

Riccardo Muti’s recording of Respighi’s “Roman Trilogy” with the Phildelphia Orchestra has had different views from different publications over the years. A 1986 review in STEREO REVIEW referred to Muti’s recording as “Spectacular”, but a 1996 AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE review called it “over-rated, and a recording with no real bass” (referring to the engineering). I tend to view it in a more favorable light than the ARG reviewers; Muti conducts with tremendous flair, and if he glosses over some high points in the excitement of the moment, I consider this a great recording, worthy to stir the senses for the moment, which Respighi, like Richard Strauss in his tone poems, should do.

I can’t give you a blow by blow description of how Muti does each movement within each work, but he has a great building climax in IV of “Pines of Rome.” “Fountains” is more reflective, while “Festivals” is truly savage, and really barbaric in I, depicting the torture and slaughter of Christians at the hands of the gladiators in the Colusseum.

In short, I give Muti’s Respighi 5 stars for performance, 4 stars for sound:the bass is a bit diffuse, as ARG’s reviewers pointed out.