Search - Ottorino Respighi, Neville Marriner, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra :: Respighi - Ancient Airs and Dances / Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Marriner

Respighi's Homage To The Distant Past

Erik North | San Gabriel, CA USA | 12/30/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A master orchestrator who learned his craft from another master orchestrator (Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov), Ottorino Respighi was extremely well known in the early third of the last century for reviving old styles of music and making them into modern masterworks (e.g., he orchestrated a few of Bach's organ works). And perhaps the best example of Respighi paying homage to the distant past lies in the three orchestral suites, composed respectively in 1917, 1924, and 1932, that he titled "Ancient Airs And Dances For The Lute."



Based on dances composed by obscure Italian composers of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, the Ancient Airs And Dances received perhaps their best recording here on this 1976 EMI release by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and their then-Music Director Sir Neville Marriner, who served from the time of the orchestra's birth in 1969 up to 1978. Both Marriner and the L.A.C.O. navigate around Respighi's orchestral colorings quite well, especially with the uses of harp and harpsichord in all three suites, full string orchestra in the third suite, and the use of trombones and timpani in the coda to the "Bergamasca" that concludes the second suite.



A fine example of a modern 20th century orchestrator bringing back forms from three to four centuries past, the Ancient Airs And Dances are never anything less than interesting, and the same can certainly be said for this recording, even if it was made three decades ago."

Respighi: Ancient Airs...

AbbysK | 03/23/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This isn't the rendition I prefered, which can't find on CD. But this is good stuff for the convenience of CD. This is Respighi's best. One of my top ten all time favorite Symphonic/classical works of music."