Respighi - Concerto in modo misolidio

Elsa Olivieri Sangiacomo, first student and later wife of Respighi, was a scholar of Gregorian chant and had introduced her husband to the mysteries of the Roman Gradual. Respighi was quick to realize the potential of these melodic music, and tried to translate them into a modern idiom that was appealing to a broad audience. For the Concerto in modo misolidio, Respighi used the song Viri Galilaei for the first movement, a hallelujah to the slow central and a Kyrie to the tumultuous final 'Passacaglia'. The concert was performed for the very first time at Carnegie Hall in New York on the evening of Dec. 31, 1925, by the composer at the piano with the New York Philharmonic-Symphony under Willem Mengelberg. Despite the warm success, Olin Downes expressed reservations about the validity of the concert. Other notable performances in Berlin and Amsterdam with Respighi soloist, in Rome with Carlo Zecchi, did not spare the concert fate ungrateful, and for decades this beautiful composition was forgotten. In the nineties, Jeoffry Tozer and Edward Downes they made a good read on a disc released by Chandos. More recently, Olli Mustonen has recorded for Ondine, and Sandro Ivo Bartoli has published a reading along with the Toccata (another forgotten masterpiece by Respighi) Home Dutch Brilliant Classics.

 

VIDEO: Ottorino Respighi - Concerto in modo misolidio Francesco La Vecchia Conductor - Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma - Desirèe Scuccuglia (Pianoforte)