New Millennium Strings
Concerts | Musicians | Rehearsals | Supporters | Board | Contact Us
Ottorino Respighi
Ancient Airs and Dances Suite I
Ottorino Respighi was born in 1879 in Bologna. As a child he was taught violin, viola and composition at the Liceo Musicale, where his father taught piano. Performing on viola and violin presented him with an opportunity to travel. While continuing to be a performer, he studied composition and orchestration with Rimsky-Korsakov in St. Petersburg. He began producing his first orchestral masterpieces which were pictoral accounts and impressions of Rome. The three tone poems which gained him much popularity were The Fountains of Rome (1917), The Pines of Rome (1924) and the Roman Festivals (1928). His gift for pictoral writing is revealed in these tone poems as well as his talent for brilliant orchestration.
Besides the larger orchestral works, Respighi excelled in the neoclassical style. He had a penchant for reviving old modal styles and plain chants. He renewed the old styles, but placed them within classical structures. A memorable example of the old style set in a modern setting is found with The Ancient Airs and Dances for the Lute, two series transcribed for orchestra (1917, 1924). These suites give the listener a clear impression of dance tunes and madrigals found during the Italian Renaissance.
-- program notes by Laurien Jones