Ottorino Respighi was a highly prolific twentieth century Italian composer. Despite composing during the same time as his more dissonant contemporaries, Respighi had a deep...

Ottorino Respighi was a highly prolific twentieth century Italian composer. Despite composing during the same time as his more dissonant contemporaries, Respighi had a deep interest in music of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, which led his compositions to be based on the tonalities of these time periods. Respighi is most remembered for his Roman trilogy (Fountains of Rome, Pines of Rome, and Roman Festivals) which was composed between 1916 and 1928. All of his orchestral works, however, display the same level of masterful composition which made him famous. This album focuses on his work Sinfonia drammatica. The epic score takes around an hour to perform, and is scored for a large-scale orchestra. Both of these are reasons that the work has been performed and recorded much less than Respighi’s other works. In addition to the Sinfonia drammatica, this release includes the more widely known Belfagor Overture. This work, composed in 1924, reutilizes material from an opera of the same name which had been poorly received in 1923.