Ottorino Respighi was born in Bologna in 1879 and studied the violin and viola at the Liceo Musicale there from 1891 with Federico Sarti. At the same time he took lessons in composition, at first from the musicologist Luigi Torchi, who had returned to Bologna from the Liceo Rossini in Pesaro in the same year, and later from the composer Giuseppe Martucci, who was director of the Liceo until 1902.
In 1899 he completed his studies and the following year went to St. Petersburg as principal viola-player at the Imperial opera. In Russia, where he spent the seasons of 1901-1902 and 1903-1904, he took lessons in composition and orchestration from Rimsky-Korsakov. During the first decade of the century Respighi won a reputation as a performer, while pursuing his growing interest in earlier music and in composition.
In Berlin in 1908 and 1909 he attended lectures by Max Bruch, but to relatively little effect. The influence of Rimsky-Korsakov, however, remained with him, guiding his bold use of orchestral colour in the music he wrote. These years brought a series of compositions. In 1902 a piano concerto of his was performed in Bologna and his Notturno of 1905 was played in New York under Rodolfo Ferrari. In the same year his opera Ré Enzo was staged in Bologna, to be followed five years later by Semirama, these operas proving successful enough to bring about his appointment in 1913 as a teacher of composition at the Liceo Santa Cecilia in Rome.
In 1919 Respighi married a singer, Eisa Olivieri-Sangiacomo and in 1924 he became director of the Santa Cecilia, resigning two years later to devote himself to composition, although he continued to teach and to perform in concerts and recitals as a conductor and as accompanist to his wife. He died in 1936 at the house he had named after one of his most famous works, "I Pini".
Orchestral Music
Respighi's international reputation, which still exceeds that of any other Italian composer of his generation, depends very largely on the symphonic poems that otter evocative and pictorial representations of Rome. Fontane di Roma (Fountains of Rome), four vivid pictures of the fountains of the city, was completed in 1916. Pini di Roma (Pines of Rome), an evocation of Roman scenes associated with the pines of the city and its surrounding countryside, followed in 1924, and this was succeeded in 1929 by Feste Romane (Romann Festivals), a work coloured by a certain contemporary political optimism. His concertos for violin and for piano occupy a lesser position in general repertoire. Other orchestral compositions include Trittico botticelliano (Triptych after Botticelli) and music from his opera Belfagor.
Arrangements
Respighi's La boutique fantasque, based on Rossini, is well known to ballet audiences. Other orchestral arrangements include three sets of orchestrated Antiche arie e danze per liuto (Ancient Airs and Dance for Lute) and Gli uccelli (The Birds), based on compositions by Rameau, Pasquini and others.
