Composer: Ottorino Resipghi
Performer: Timothy Fallon, Ammiel Bushakevitz
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: BIS
Catalogue: BIS2632
Release: 2022
Size: 1.2 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Deità silvane, P. 107
01. No. 1, I fauni
02. No. 2, Musica in horto
03. No. 3, Egle
04. No. 4, Acqua
05. No. 5, Crepuscolo
6 Melodie, P. 89
06. No. 1, In alto mare
07. Contrasto, P. 66
08. L’ultima ebberezza, P. 8
6 Melodie, P. 89
09. No. 2, Abbandono
10. Stornellatrice, P. 69
5 Canti all’antica, P. 71
11. No. 1, L’udir talvolta
12. No. 2, Ma come potrei
13. No. 3, Ballata
14. No. 4, Bella porta di rubini
15. No. 5, Canzone nell’opera comica Re Enzo
16. Storia breve, P. 52
6 Liriche, Series 2, P. 97
17. No. 6, Il giardino
6 Liriche, Series 1, P. 90
18. No. 6, Pioggia
19. Lagrime, P. 9
4 Scottish Songs, P. 143
20. No. 1, When the Kye Come Hame
21. No. 2, Within a Mile of Edinburgh Town
22. No. 3, My Heart’s in the Highlands
23. No. 4, The Piper of Dundee
6 Liriche, Series 1, P. 90
24. No. 1, O falce di luna
25. Notturno in E-Flat Major, P. 11
26. Nebbie, P. 64
Crepuscolo is the final song in Ottorino Respighi’s song cycle Deità silvane (“Woodland Deities”), but as an album title it also stands for the twilight during the interwar years of everything that Respighi represented, as various trends such as atonality, spiky neoclassicism and futurism flourished. In reaction to these developments, Respighi in 1932 famously signed a manifesto calling for music with a “human content” – something which his songs certainly live up to: as Elsa Respighi, the composer’s wife, once said it was to his songs that he “entrusts his heart’s hidden secrets, when he lets his soul sing freely”.
From L’ultima ebbrezza, composed when Respighi was only 17 years old, to the Four Scottish Songs from 1924, the songs recorded here attest to the variety of his musical interests, influences and styles, and are at turns lyrically operatic, expressionist, impressionist or symbolist. Respighi’s love of the Renaissance is also manifest in the Cinque canti all’antica, settings of poets including Boccaccio.
Timothy Fallon and Ammiel Bushakevitz have previously released a Liszt recital described as “superb” in Gramophone. They have now devised a varied programme which takes in three complete groups as well as a selection of individual songs, including Respighi’s most popular songs (Nebbie, Stornellatrice) as well as less well known ones.