Ottorino Respighi
Ottorino Respighi (/rɛˈspiːɡi/ reh-SPEE-ghee,[1] US also /rəˈ-/ rə-,[2] Italian: [ottoˈriːno reˈspiːɡi]; 9 July 1879 – 18 April 1936) was an Italian composer, violinist, teacher, and musicologist and one of the leading Italian composers of the early 20th century. His compositions range over operas, ballets, orchestral suites, choral songs, chamber music, and transcriptions of Italian compositions of the 16th–18th centuries, but his best known and most performed works are his three orchestral tone poems which brought him international fame: Fountains of Rome (1916), Pines of Rome (1924), and Roman Festivals (1928).
"Respighi" redirects here. For other uses, see Respighi (surname).
Ottorino Respighi
Respighi was born in Bologna to a musical and artistic family. He was encouraged by his father to pursue music at a young age, and took formal tuition in the violin and piano. In 1891, he enrolled at the Liceo Musicale di Bologna, where he studied the violin, viola, and composition, was principal violinist at the Russian Imperial Theatre, and studied briefly with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. He relocated to Rome in 1913 to become professor of composition at the Liceo Musicale di Santa Cecilia. During this period he married his pupil, singer Elsa Olivieri-Sangiacomo. In 1923, Respighi quit his professorship to dedicate time to tour and compose, but continued to teach until 1935. He performed and conducted in various capacities across the United States and South America from 1925 until his death.
In late 1935, while composing his opera Lucrezia, Respighi became ill and was diagnosed with bacterial endocarditis. He died four months later, aged 56. His wife Elsa outlived him for almost 60 years, championing her late husband's works and legacy until her death in 1996. Conductor and composer Salvatore Di Vittorio completed several of Respighi's incomplete and previously unpublished works, including the finished Violin Concerto in A major (1903) which premiered in 2010.
Biography[edit]
Early years[edit]
Respighi was born on 9 July 1879 at 8 Via Guido Reni, an apartment building to the side of Palazzo Fantuzzi. The third and youngest child of Giuseppe and Ersilia (née Putti) Respighi, he had a middle class upbringing with his sister Amelia; his brother Alberto died at age nine.[3] Giuseppe, a postal worker, was an accomplished pianist who studied the instrument with Stefano Golinelli and taught music at the Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna.[4] Ersilia came from a family of distinguished sculptors. Respighi's paternal grandfather was a violinist and organist at the cathedral in modern day Fidenza.[4][5][6] Amelia described Respighi as closed in nature but sincere, sensitive, and generous.[4]
Giuseppe encouraged his son, but to his initial disappointment, Respighi showed little interest in music until he was almost eight.[7] After being taught basic piano and violin from his father Respighi began formal tuition in the latter, but quit abruptly after his teacher hit his hand with a ruler for playing a passage incorrectly. He resumed lessons with a more patient teacher.[8] Respighi's piano skills were a hit-and-miss affair initially, but his father once arrived home to find Respighi confidently reciting the Symphonic Studies by Robert Schumann; he had learned to play the piece in secret.[9] Respighi remained a self-taught pianist and in later life avoided scales in his compositions due to his inability to play them correctly.[4] Nonetheless he quickly took to other instruments; for example, he taught himself the harp in the course of several days.[10]
In 1891, the family relocated to 2 Via de' Castagnoli where Respighi was able to have his own studio. In his seclusion he collected books and began a lifelong interest in geography, science, and languages.[11] Respighi became fluent, and read literature in, eleven languages in his adult life.[12] His wife recalled the composer's meeting with Albert Einstein in Berlin, who was impressed with Respighi's understanding of his scientific theories.[4]
Life in Bologna, 1890–1913[edit]
In October 1890, Respighi began two years of schooling at the Ginnasio Guinizelli.[13] He enrolled at the Liceo Musicale di Bologna in the following year, studying the violin and viola with Federico Sarti and organ and counterpoint and fugue with Cesare Dall'Olio.[14][4] Among Respighi's earliest completed and dated compositions at this time were the Piccola ouverture and Preludio for small orchestra.[15] Four years into his course, Respighi began classes in composition and music history, firstly with Liceo director Giuseppe Martucci and then Luigi Torchi. Martucci, a proponent of Bologna's musical life and composer of non-operatic Italian music, became an influential figure for the young Respighi.[16] In June 1899, he received his diploma in the playing of the violin, performing Le Streghe by Niccolò Paganini in his exam.[15] Not long after Respighi joined the orchestra at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna and played the violin for several seasons.[17]
Legacy[edit]
Elsa survived her husband for nearly 60 years, unfailingly championing his works and legacy. Several months after Respighi's death, she wrote to Guastalla: "I live because I can truly still do something for him. And I shall do it, that is certain, until the day I die."[70] However, Italian governments following Mussolini distanced themselves from nationalistic composers including Respighi, Malipiero, Pizzetti, and Pietro Mascagni, and several Italian newspapers protested against honours bestowed upon Elsa.[71] Nevertheless, in 1961 she donated a collection of unpublished and incomplete manuscripts to the Liceo Musicale and in 1969, helped establish the Fondo Ottorino Respighi foundation at the Fondazione Cini in Venice which included the donation of a large number of letters and photographs.[72] A collection of manuscripts of early works, personal items, and the composer's death mask were also donated to the International Museum and Library of Bologna.[28] Elsa was at the forefront of the Respighi centenary celebrations in 1979 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Respighi's birth, though it was opposed by what she described as "musical progressives with left-wing political sympathies" who tried to discredit his legacy.[73][71] The commemoration saw a number of long-neglected works of Respighi's performed and recorded for the first time. Elsa died in 1996, one week short of her 102nd birthday.
In 1993, Swiss conductor Adriano Baumann founded the Respighi Society in London in an effort to make Respighi's "life and works [...] better known and understood by the dissemination of accurate and impartial information."[71] It has since been dissolved. On 4 March 2000, a commemorative plaque was unveiled at Respighi's birthplace on Via Guido Reni in Bologna.[74] His niece Luisa Putti and great-nieces Elsa and Gloria Pizzoli were in attendance; the latter had donated the piano Respighi used to compose Fountains of Rome and Pines of Rome to the Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna in 1956.[28]
In 2006, Elsa and Gloria approached Italian conductor and composer Salvatore Di Vittorio who, along with Respighi archiver and cataloguer Potito Pedarra, commissioned him to complete several of Respighi's incomplete and previously unpublished compositions. This included the Violin Concerto in A major from 1903, which premiered in 2010 with Di Vittorio conducting his Chamber Orchestra of New York.[75] The orchestra continues to premiere ongoing new editions by Di Vittorio of Respighi's music in premieres as well as recordings on Naxos Records. In 2008, Di Vittorio premiered his Overture Respighiana, an orchestral work written as a homage to Respighi.
Sources