Ottorino Respighi - Metamorphoseon; etc. (John Neschling)

Information

Composer: Ottorino Respighi

• (01) Metamorphoseon
• (14) Ballata delle gnomidi
• (15) Belkis, Regina di Saba

Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège

John Neschling, conductor

Date: 2015

Label: BIS
https://bis.se/label/bis/respighi-metamorphoseon

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Review

Composers can be wayward judges of their own work. Respighi, it would seem, disliked his Metamorphoseon, commissioned in 1930 by Serge Koussevitzky as one of a number of works (the list included Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms) to mark the Boston Symphony’s 50th anniversary. Though the premiere was a success, Respighi deemed its composition ‘forced’, and discouraged further performances – a curious response, since it’s arguably the most striking piece in John Neschling’s latest album of his music.

In form, it’s an extended set of variations on a slowly unwinding theme, the contours of which suggest both Gregorian chant and Slavonic folksong, a reflection perhaps of both Respighi’s interest in early music and his Russian training. The style is post-Romantic, but there’s an almost Baroque profusion of inspiration in its restlessly shifting orchestral patterns. The scoring has all Respighi’s usual glamour but is thicker and darker in colour than much of his work, which may have been a source of his dissatisfaction. It’s dazzlingly done here, with plenty of grace and panache, by Neschling and his Belgian orchestra.

Its companion pieces find Respighi in decadent mode. The Straussian symphonic poem Ballata degli gnomidi found favour with Toscanini in its day (1920), though its subject – the slaughter of a gnome by females of his tribe during an arcane, sadomasochistic ritual – is too misogynistic for comfort. Belkis, regina di Saba was a blockbusting ballet, choreographed by Léonide Massine for La Scala in 1932, and clearly designed to cater for every sexual taste with its big solos depicting the Queen of Sheba’s erotic awakening and corps de ballet of ‘young athletes, tanned and almost naked’. It caused a stir at last year’s Proms in a full-on performance by the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic under Sascha Goetzel. Neschling is altogether more restrained, but the work’s heady atmosphere still sends you reeling.

-- Tim Ashley, Gramophone

More reviews:

ClassicsToday  ARTISTIC QUALITY: 9 / SOUND QUALITY: 10

https://www.classical-music.com/reviews/orchestral/respighi-1-2/

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2015/Jul/Respighi_metamorphoseon_BIS2130.htm

https://www.audaud.com/respighi-metamorphoseon-ballata-delle-gnomidi-queen-of-sheba-suite-orch-philharmonique-royal-de-liege-john-neschling-bis/

https://www.amazon.com/Respighi-Metamorphoseon-Neschling-Orchestre-Philharmonique/dp/B00YJLARW2

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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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John Neschling (born May 13, 1947 in Rio de Janeiro) is a Brazilian orchestral and operatic conductor. He studied conducting under Hans Swarowsky and Reinhold Schmid in Vienna and under Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa in Tanglewood. Later, he won several international conducting competitions. Neschling was music director and chief conductor of the São Paulo State Symphony from 1997 to 2008. During the twelve years under his leadership, the OSESP became a first rate international orchestra, and recorded a series of CDs, winning 5 Diapason d'Or and one Latin Grammy. 

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

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