La Primavera / Quattro Liriche / La pentola magica [The Magic Pot]

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John Sunier
Audiophile Audition, June 2009

Respighi is of course mainly connected with his series of super-colorful widescreen panoramic tone poems inspired by Rome. Their brilliant colors and obvious appeal have totally overshadowed the composer's many works for the stage, symphonic and chamber groups. Only recently has some of Respighi's other music found its way to recordings. Some of this has been due to the efforts of Swiss conductor-composer Adriano, who is an established specialist on Respighi. His many recording projects have been based on the idea that music history should be revised to be not just the story of the so-called great composers, neatly classified into traditions and categories. He strives to bring neglected music such as these Respighi works to public attention.

Both the first two works on the Adriano CD are based on texts by Armenian poets. Respighi seems to have become interested in the Italian translations of a contemporary, Constant Zarian, and used them in his lyric poem for a quartet of soloists, chorus and orchestra, La Primavera. This was one of several of his vocal symphonic poems which have a place somewhat between the traditional cantata and opera, though avoiding the character of an oratorio. It's seven episodes deal with the mysteries of Spring, the voices of the breezes, water and flowers, a young man's longing, and enraptured maidens. The four short songs of the second work are based on texts by both Zarian and another Armenian poet. He used archaic church modes to provide the exotic-religious atmosphere of the texts, and the mezzo soloist is accompanied by a chamber group.

The closing ballet on the first CD provided the greatest interest to me. It is a pastiche score not unlike Stravinsky's Pulcinella and The Fairy's Kiss, and pays tribute to a group of less well-known composers, including Grachaninov, Arensky, Anton Rubinstein and Vladimir Rebikov. Respighi's great skill in orchestration brings all the sources together for a delightful suite which runs 25 minutes.



James Manheim
Allmusic.com, May 2009

Ottorino Respighi is a classic example of a composer known only for a few big hits, although his catalog runs to dozens of full-length works…But each has its pleasures, and the readings by the single-named Respighi specialist Adriano, with a group of little-known but terrific Slovak vocal soloists, are very strong. The opening La Primavera, a giant choral-orchestral cantata, has rarely been recorded before and has been unkindly treated even by Respighi's adoring biographers. A setting of a rather cosmic Armenian dramatic poem about God bestowing the gift of spring upon a generic pagan society, it's a late Romantic choral cantata of the sort that fell decisively out of fashion for many years. With an active piano part providing a kind of wash of sunlight, augmented by a large battery of other percussion, it's a bit bombastic but certainly not dull. The highlight of the disc may be the central Quattro liriche su poeie populari armene, originally for voice and piano but composed for Respighi's wife, Elsa, and arranged for chamber group with her approval. Gregorian chant and medieval modes stand in for Armenian vocal material in economical settings that are beautifully rendered by mezzo soprano Denisa Slepkovska. The finale La pentola magica is a colorful pastiche of music, for a now-lost ballet (even the story is lost), by Respighi and other composers… engineers provided sound with depth and clarity in what must have been, at least in the case of La Primavera, difficult conditions. Probably of most interest to Respighi fans or those interested in the international impact of Armenian culture, but an offbeat choice commended to anyone looking for an unusual vocal item or looking to stage a choral-orchestral extravaganza.



Philip Greenfield
American Record Guide, May 2009

Respighi, for the most part, is a composer on the periphery. So here we are at the periphery of the periphery, because none of this is frontline Respighi. La Pentola Magica (The Magic Pot) is a 1919 ballet where the Italian saluted his Russian colleagues (Grechaninoff, Arensky, Anton Rubinstein, and a few others) in a 10-movement suite that runs 25 minutes. Respighi wrote the score for Diaghilev and didn't cheat him. It's a sparkler.

La Primavera (1919) is a flossy, sumptuously- scored 45-minute cantata based on themes of love and nature, Armenian style. The composer had latched onto the writings of Constant Zarian, who, at the time, was living in Istanbul and drawing off the exoticism of poetry from further east…In the cantata, the solo voices are terrific: attractive, strong, and emotionally connected to the sappy story they do their utmost to sell. (At least Naxos describes the seven scenes in the booklet.) The Liriche are inspired by Armenian poetry, but their subject matter is tinged with sadness. They too are handsomely sung. Aside from a few sections of the Pentola that could use more oomph, the orchestra plays with commendable brio." Allmusic.com, May 2009