Ottorino Respighi is a classic example of a composer known only for a few big hits, although his catalog runs to dozens of full-length works. With the demise of modernist control over recording and concert programs, works other than his big Roman tone poems are becoming better known. The three works on this release, recorded in the early '90s and acquired by Naxos from the defunct Marco Polo label, certainly come from odd corners of Respighi's output; their inspiration is not Italian but Armenian in two cases and Russian in ...
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Ottorino Respighi is a classic example of a composer known only for a few big hits, although his catalog runs to dozens of full-length works. With the demise of modernist control over recording and concert programs, works other than his big Roman tone poems are becoming better known. The three works on this release, recorded in the early '90s and acquired by Naxos from the defunct Marco Polo label, certainly come from odd corners of Respighi's output; their inspiration is not Italian but Armenian in two cases and Russian in the third. But each has its pleasures, and the readings by the single-named Respighi specialist Adriano, with a group of little-known but terrific Slovak vocal soloists, are very strong. The opening La Primavera, a giant choral-orchestral cantata, has rarely been recorded before and has been unkindly treated even by Respighi's adoring biographers. A setting of a rather cosmic Armenian dramatic poem about God bestowing the gift of spring upon a generic pagan society, it's a late...
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