2012-2013 Demirjian Classical Connections Series Concert One: September 14, 2012 Program: “Ottorino Respighi's Roman Odyssey"

Respighi Listener’s Guide

Welcome to the 17th season of Classical Connections,

made possible thanks to generous support from music lovers

Patti and Chuck Demirjian. With the new Dayton Performing Arts Alliance uniting the Philharmonic with Dayton

Ballet and Dayton Opera, I expect that some of you may be new to Classical Connections. So let me explain how

this works, even if it’s old hat for you CC veterans.

I’m in music for one simple reason: when I was a kid I watched Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts on

TV. I loved how Lenny explained the music, took it apart, then put it back together. I was shocked and disappointed

to discover that not all concerts were like that! When I became a conductor I vowed to create

something like those Bernstein concerts, but live, not on TV, and for grown-ups, not (just) for

kids. The first of these talk-and-play programs was 21 years ago in Milwaukee. Since then I’ve

done them in Milwaukee (eight seasons), Phoenix (three seasons), and Dayton (16 seasons,

going on 17).

Classical Connections programs usually focus on a single work by a single composer. While

we focus on “the greats”, I also like to use this series to introduce you to new or unfamiliar

works and to argue for wonderful composers who don’t get the respect they deserve. Like

Ottorino Respighi, subject of our season-opening program.

You’ll hear three examples of Respighi’s genius: the wild War Dance from his 1934 ballet

Belkis, Queen of Sheba; Botticelli Triptych, a 1927 masterpiece for chamber orchestra; and his

best-loved work, the brilliant 1924 tone-poem Pines of Rome.

So let’s get busy, making some classical connections with

Italy’s impressionist master, Ottorino Respighi!

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For centuries, composers have known

that one of the best instruments they can

write for is the listener’s imagination.

Violin trills in Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons

become bird calls. Fast repeated notes

in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion become

an earthquake. A timpani roll in

Elgar’s Enigma Variations becomes the

thrumming of an ocean liner’s engines.

Ottorino Respighi was an accomplished

violinist, violist, and pianist. But his

virtuoso instrument was the imagination.

Respighi’s catalogue contains some pieces

of “just music” (Symphony in E, Piano

Concerto, Toccata), but the majority of

his compositions—and all of his best-

known works—are program music.

Program music tells a story and plays

on the listener’s imagination. The two

main works on September’s Classical

Connections program are prime

examples.

We’ll spend time on concert night

exploring the ins and outs of Pines of

Rome—the brilliant orchestration and the

myriad images the music evokes (playing

children, chanting monks, chirping

nightingales, Caesar’s legions on the

march). Here in the Listener’s Guide, I’d

like to devote a little extra attention to

the bonus piece on “Ottorino Respighi’s

Roman Odyssey”: Botticelli Triptych.

This piece (often referred to by

its mellifluous Italian title, Trittico

Botticelliano) was inspired by three

Botticelli masterpieces that hang in

Florence’s Uffizi Gallery: La Primavera,

Adoration of the Magi, and The Birth of

Venus. Each movement works on two

levels: first, as a translation of Botticelli’s

images into music; second, as a trigger for

the listener’s imagination.

Botticelli’s La Primavera illustrates

spring both literally and metaphorically.

We see a beautiful garden filled with

trees, flower petals, and fruit. We also see

a nymph, the three Graces dancing in a

circle, Cupid aiming his arrow, a flower-

bedecked woman who looks radiantly

pregnant, Mercury standing guard, and

Venus presiding over the entire scene.

Respighi’s vivacious music captures the

kinetic energy of the painting: swirling

trills and swooping scales, energetic horn

calls, lilting dance figures. The trills

and scales suggest Cupid in flight (also

Zephyrus, the March wind, swooping

in from the right). But in the listener’s

imagination, that same music can have a

completely different meaning. I hear birds

(something strangely absent the painting),

especially those big flocks of birds you see

in springtime, sweeping across the sky in

thrilling unison.

P R O G R A M

DEMIRJIAN

CLASSICAL CONNECTIONS

Friday, September 14, 20128:00 p.m. Schuster Center

Q&A after the concert Neal Gittleman conductor, host

Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936)

Belkis, Queen of Sheba: War Dance

Botticelli Triptych I. Spring

II. The Adoration of the Magi III. The Birth of Venus

Pines of Rome I. Pines of the Villa Borghese

II. Pines Near a Catacomb III. Pines of the Gianiculum IV. Pines of the Appian Way

Series Sponsor Dr. Charles & Patricia Demirjian

Series Media Sponsor Dayton City Paper

Official Automobile The Bob Ross Dealerships

Official Hotel Dayton Marriott

Season Media Partners ThinkTV | Classical WDPR 88.1Concert Broadcast on WDPR 88.1,

October 20, 2012 at 10:00 a.m. classical connections listener's guide

© neal gittleman, 2012

B Y N E A L G I T T L E M A N

The Music of Imagination

Ottorino Respighi

Ottorino Respighi’s Roman Odyssey

Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy

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La Primavera shows Respighi

mirroring Botticelli, but Adoration of

the Magi shows him all but ignoring the

painting. The painting is a busy daytime

scene with 29 people, two horses, and a

peacock clustered around Jesus, Mary,

and Joseph. But Respighi’s music is a

quiet nocturne, as if the three wise men

have a private audience with the Holy

Family. Once again, manipulating the

listener’s imagination is key.

Adoration of the Magi has three

“a-ha!” moments for the listener.

Respighi presents something, gives you

a chance to think about what you’re

hearing, then brings a smile to your face

as you figure it out.

One: “Hey, isn’t that ‘O Come, O

Come, Emmanuel”? (Yes, it is!) “Isn’t

that an Advent hymn?” (Yes, it is!)

“Isn’t Advent about getting ready for

the Nativity?” (Yes, it is!) “And doesn’t

Advent also include the wise men setting

out on the journey from the East?”

(Yes, it does!)

Two: a jaunty march for the magi’s

journey to Bethlehem. It has an oriental

feel (as in “We three kings of orient

are.”) And it has three distinct musical

themes, (wait for it!) one for each

magus.

Three: a beautiful bassoon solo. If

you know your Italian Christmas carols

(and Respighi assumes that you do),

you’ll recognize it as “Tu scendi dalle

stele” (“You Came Down from the

Stars”). If you know only the familiar-

in-the-U.S. carols, you won’t recognize

it. But NOW you know what lovely tune

Kristin Smith is playing so beautifully!

The final movement of Respighi’s

triptych asks the most of the listener’s

imagination. Botticelli’s Birth of Venus

depicts the naked goddess arriving at

the shore on her clamshell, greeted by a

maiden ready to shroud her in a cloak

as soon as she makes landfall. It’s more

Venus Disembarks than her birth!

Respighi’s music turns the painting

into a thrilling journey. Hushed

murmurings depict the gentle breezes

and calm sea at dawn. The music

gradually gathers momentum until you

hear Venus surfing towards shore, hair

blowing in the wind (as opposed to

Botticelli’s far more modest use of her

hair). Suddenly the music stops and

Respighi returns to the gentle sounds of

the opening.

Yes, he says, it was all in your

imagination!

The Birth of Venus

Adoration of the Magi

La Primavera

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A Respighi Timeline

1879 July 9, born in Bologna to piano teacher Giusieppe Respighi and

Ersilia Putti Respighi, descended from a family of sculptors.

1887 Begins piano and viola lessons

with his father.

1889 Enters Bologna Conservatory,

studying violin and, later, composition.

1900 Plays viola in the St. Petersburg

Imperial Theatre Orchestra. Studies composition and orchestration

with Rimsky-Korsakov.

1903 Returns to Bologna, working as an orchestral musician and composer.

1913 Joins the composition faculty of

Rome’s Santa Cecilia Conservatory.

1915 Composes Fountains of Rome,

the first of three Rome-themed tone-poems.

1919 Marries singer and composer

Elsa Sangiacomo, who had been his student. Elsa becomes Respighi’s

biographer and a passionate advocate for his music.

1924 Completes Pines of Rome.

1927 Composes Botticelli Triptych and begins work on Roman Festivals.

1936 April 18, dies in Rome of heart disease, leaving his last opera, Lucrezia nearly finished. Elsa finishes the work, assisted by

oneof Respighi’s pupils.

1879 First Woolworth’s Store opens in Utica, NY. Ibsen’s A Doll’s House.

Edison demonstrates first light bulb. Madison Square Garden opens.

1887 Annie Sullivan spells “WATER”

for Helen Keller.

1889 Benjamin Harrison inaugurated 23rd U.S. President. Wall Street Journal’s Volume 1, Number 1.

1900 Max Planck introduces quantum

theory. Baseball’s American League begins play. First Davis Cup tennis

tournament. Boxer Rebellion.

1903 First Tour de France.

Two Ohio brothers fly a plane.

1913 16th Amendment allows

federal income tax.

1915 “Typhoid Mary” starts a disease outbreak in New York. Congress

creates U.S. Coast Guard.

1919 Prohibition begins. Monet paints

water lillies. Walter Gropius founds Bauhaus movement.

Black Sox scandal rocks baseball. (“Say it ain’t so, Joe!”).

1924 First Winter Olympics.

1927 Lindbergh flies from New York to Paris. Jolson sings on film.

1936 Spanish Civil War begins. Boulder Dam completed.

Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times. Margaret Mitchell’s

Gone With the Wind.

From age seven until college, I spent most summers at my parents’ vacation home in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. From age 10 until college, we were full-time New Englanders, living first in Vermont and then in suburban Boston.

Back then most northeasterners avoided talking religion or politics. Maybe that’s why I try to steer clear of those topics in Classical Connections, too!

But sometimes they can’t be avoided. We couldn’t do a CC program on Bach’s St. Matthew Passion without talking religion. Nor could we talk about Shostakovich’s Eleventh Symphony without talking Soviet-era politics.

With Pines of Rome, politics intrudes again, because Benito Mussolini LOVED Respighi’s imposing musical depictions of Roman grandeur.

But composers can’t be held responsible for the crazy ideas of their fans—unless they share those crazy ideas. And Respighi didn’t.

The Respighi-Mussolini case parallels the more notorious Wagner-Hitler case. Just as Mussolini loved Pines of Rome (and Fountains of Rome and Roman Festivals) and tried to associate himself with them, so Hitler tried to use Wagner’s music for political purposes. The key difference is that Wagner died six years before Hitler was born, whereas Respighi lived and worked in Italy during the first 14 years of Il Duce’s reign.

There were Italian musicians—conductor Arturo Toscanini in particular—who took a public stand against fascism. Respighi was not one of them. He was no more a fascist than Shostakovich was a Stalinist, but his reputation has suffered because he kept his head down and stayed quiet. Respighi didn’t make a scene when Mussolini used his Rome-themed works as propaganda. Easy for us to criticize. Not so easy to have been in Respighi’s shoes.

Fascism’s most insidious quality is that it twists noble attributes (national and cultural identity, patriotism, pride, family) into tools to spread its evil message. Music, too. So the finale of Pines of Rome, with its glorious musical vision of Caesar’s army triumphantly marching up the Appian Way was perfect for Mussolini’s propaganda machine.

When I hear Respighi’s Roman pieces—or the Botticelli Triptych—I hear a great composer inspired by his homeland—its beauty, its history, its culture. Maybe you hear the music of a weak man who didn’t have the courage to stand up to evil.

Sounds like we might have an interesting post-concert discussion!

Music and Politics (Italian Style)