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| Feste Romane Roman Festivals | |
|---|---|
| Tone poem byOttorino Respighi | |
| Catalogue | P 157 |
| Composed | 1928 (1928) |
| Duration | Approx. 25 minutes |
| Movements | 4 |
| Premiere | |
| Date | 21 February 1929 (1929-02-21) |
| Location | New York City,United States |
| Conductor | Arturo Toscanini |
| Performers | New York Philharmonic |
Roman Festivals (Italian:Feste Romane),P 157 is atone poem in four movements for orchestra completed in 1928 by the Italian composerOttorino Respighi.[1] It is the last of his three tone poems about Rome, followingFountains of Rome (1916) andPines of Rome (1924), which he referred to as atriptych.[2] Each movement depicts a scene of celebration in ancient and contemporary Rome, specificallygladiators battling to the death, theChristian Jubilee, a harvest and hunt festival, and a festival in thePiazza Navona. Musically, the piece is the longest and most demanding of Respighi's Roman trilogy.[3]
The premiere was held on 21 February 1929 atCarnegie Hall in New York City, withArturo Toscanini conducting theNew York Philharmonic.[4] The piece was published byCasa Ricordi in the same year.
Having completed the work, Respighi felt that he had incorporated the "maximum of orchestral sonority and colour" from the orchestra and could no longer write such large scale pieces. It was at this time he started to favour compositions for smaller ensembles.[5] AlthoughRoman Festivals is generally considered as less successful than its two predecessors, conductor and Respighi interpreterYan Pascal Tortelier points to the "really inspired mix of sophisticated orchestration, chromaticism, harmony and powerful driving rhythms" used in the piece, and judges "La Befana" as "exuberant, almost orgiastic" and "much more varied and satisfying musically" than the similarly eruptive final movement ofPines of Rome.[5]
The piece consists of four movements, for which Respighi wrote programmatic notes describing each scene.[6]
"Circus Games" depicts the ancient contests in whichgladiators battled to the death, with the sound of trumpet fanfares. Strings and woodwinds suggest theplainchant of the firstChristianmartyrs which are heard against the snarls of the beasts against which they are pitted. The movement ends with violent orchestral chords, complete with organ pedal, as the martyrs succumb. "The Jubilee" portrays the every-fiftieth-year festival in the Papal tradition (seeChristian Jubilee). Respighi quotes the German Easter hymn, "Christ ist erstanden". Pilgrims approaching Rome catch a breath-taking view fromMt. Mario, as church bells ring in the background. "The October Harvest" represents the harvest and hunt festival in Rome. The French horn solo celebrates the harvest as bells and a mandolin portrays love serenades. "The Epiphany" takes place in thePiazza Navona. Trumpets sound again and create a festive clamour of Roman songs and dances, including a barrel organ and a drunken reveler depicted by a solo tenor trombone.
Feste romane is scored for the following large orchestra, including some unusual instruments intended to suggest music of earlier times:[7][8]
1 Respighi noted that the buccine may be replaced bytrumpets, a substitution which most modern orchestras make.[3]
Arturo Toscanini and theNew York Philharmonic premiered the music inCarnegie Hall on 21 February 1929.[3] Toscanini recorded it with thePhiladelphia Orchestra in theAcademy of Music in 1942 forRCA Victor. He recorded it again with theNBC Symphony Orchestra inCarnegie Hall in 1949, again for RCA. Both recordings were issued on LP and CD. Indeed, the 1949 performance pushed the very limits of the recording equipment of the time as Toscanini insisted the engineers capture all of the dynamics of the music, especially in "Circus Games" and "Epiphany".
The piece was first performed in Italy at the Augusteo in Rome on 17 March 1929, by the Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia underBernardino Molinari.[9]
This work was transcribed (in the original key) for theUnited States Marine Band by Don Patterson in 2010. This transcription was recorded on the CDFeste, conducted byMichael J. Colburn.[10]
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