Ottorino Respighi - Concerto gregoriano; Concerto all'antica (Andrea Cappelletti)

Information

Composer: Ottorino Respighi

1. Concerto gregoriano, for violin & orchestra: I. Andante tranquillo
2. Concerto gregoriano, for violin & orchestra: II. Andante espressivo e sostenuto
3. Concerto gregoriano, for violin & orchestra: III. Finale (Allelulia): Allegro energico
4. Concerto all'antica, for violin & orchestra: I. Allegro
5. Concerto all'antica, for violin & orchestra: II. Adagio non troppo
6. Concerto all'antica, for violin & orchestra: III. Scherzo: Vivace - Tempo di minuetto - Vivace

Andrea Cappelletti, violin
Philharmonia Orchestra
Matthias Bamert, conductor

Date: 1993
Label: Koch Schwann

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Review

Cappelletti's and Bamert's coupling is fascinating and salutary in demonstrating how little there remains to apologize for in the best of Respighi's music when it is played with real opulence and virtuosity. The fact that the Concerto gregoriano somewhat belies its name seems hardly worth making a fuss over when both soloist and conductor have so shrewdly and delightedly perceived that Respighi's use of modality enables him to explore both 'early music' and folklore, and thus in the first movement to come within hand-clasping distance of Vaughan Williams, in the finale to give a wave to Dvorak. The lushness of the music, which can be disconcerting if you're expecting 'real' Gregorian chant, sounds much more natural when put into its proper, late-romantic-violin-concerto context by a big and bold performance and by rich and dramatic gesture. Cappelletti, a striking and accomplished soloist (he plays, by the way, a sumptuous late Stradivari) has all the variety of tone to make the most of the finale's punch and vigour, but also of the musing beauty of the slow movement. Bamert, one of whose most praiseworthy gifts (vide his Parry cycle for Chandos) is the ability to capture a composer's individual tone of voice, is an ideal partner. I now prefer this reading to Lydia Mordkovitch's beautiful but rather more reticent account. As for the rather more slender Concerto all'antica, Cappelletti and Bamert can't quite hide the finale's garrulousness (though one hardly minds it, with such refined playing as this), but their wholehearted enjoyment of the work's blend of neo-classical gesture and romantic warmth is again infectious.

-- Michael Oliver, Gramophone

More reviews:
http://www.amazon.com/Con-Gregoriano-Allantica-Matthias-Bamert/dp/B000001SQV

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Ottorino Respighi (9 July 1879 – 18 April 1936) was an Italian composer and musicologist. He is best known for his orchestral music, particularly the three Roman tone poems: Fountains of Rome (Fontane di Roma), Pines of Rome (I pini di Roma), and Roman Festivals (Feste romane). His musicological interest in 16th-, 17th- and 18th-century music led him to compose pieces based on the music of these periods. Although Respighi was known primarily as composers of instrumental and orchestral music, he also wrote a number of operas, the most famous of which is La fiamma.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottorino_Respighi

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Andrea Cappelletti (born 1961) is an Italian violinist. He studied with Giuseppe Prencipe at the Naples Conservatory and graduating at 18. He perfected his skill with Tibor Varga at Detmold, Corrado Romano at Geneva and at Menuhin Academy Gstaad with Alberto Lysy. He plays the 1727 "Holroyd" Stradivarius.

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