Pines of Rome

Ottorino Respighi

Pines of Rome (Italian title Pini di Roma) is a symphonic poem written by the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi. It is the second orchestral work in his "Roman trilogy", which is also formed of Fountains of Rome (1917) and Roman Festivals (1926). Each of the four movements depict pine trees in different locations in Rome at different times of the day. The premiere took place at the Augusteo, Rome under the direction of Bernardino Molinari on December 14, 1924.

Structure

Pines of Rome consists of four movements, each depicting pine trees located in different areas in the city of Rome at different times of the day:

1. I pini di Villa Borghese: Allegretto vivace (Pines of the Villa Borghese)
2. Pini presso una catacomba: Lento (Pines Near a Catacomb)
3. I pini del Gianicolo: Lento (Pines of the Janiculum)
4. I pini della Via Appia: Tempo di marcia (Pines of the Appian Way)

The first movement portrays noisy children playing soldiers and marching in the pine groves of the Villa Borghese gardens.

The second movement, Pini presso una catacomba is a majestic dirge, representing pine trees near a catacomb in Campagna. Lower orchestral instruments, plus the organ pedal at 16' and 32' pitch, suggest the subterranean nature of the catacombs, while the trombones represent priests chanting.

Pines of the Janiculum is a nocturne set on the Janiculum hill. Respighi took the opportunity to have the sound of a nightingale recorded onto a phonograph, and have it played at the movement's ending. This was something that had never been done before, and created discussion.

The score mentions a specific recording that references a Brunswick Panatrope record player.

The final movement, I pini della Via Appia, portrays pine trees along the Appian Way. Misty dawn: a legion advances along the Via Appia in the brilliance of the newly-risen sun. Respighi wanted the ground to tremble under the footsteps of his army and he instructs the organ to play bottom B flat on 8', 16' and 32' organ pedal. The score calls for buccine - ancient trumpets that are usually represented by flugelhorns. Trumpets peal and the consular army rises in triumph to the Capitoline Hill.

Instrumentation

Pini di Roma calls for the following large orchestra:

Woodwinds: 3 flutes (3rd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets in B-flat and A, bass clarinet in B-flat and A, 2 bassoons and contrabassoon

Brass: 4 horns in F and E, 3 trumpets in B-flat, 3 tenor trombones, bass trombone, 6 Buccine in B-flat (played on flugel or saxhorns as follows: 2 Soprano, 2 Tenor, 2 Bass) and offstage trumpet in C

Percussion: timpani, bass drum, snare drum, cymbals, 2 small cymbals, tam-tam, triangle, ratchet, tambourine and glockenspiel

Keyboards: organ, piano and celesta

Electronics: gramophone (third movement only)

Strings: harp, first and second violins, violas, violoncellos and double basses

Performances and recordings

Pines of Rome had its premiere on December 14, 1924 at the Augusteo theatre in Rome, under the direction of Italian conductor Bernardino Molinari, to a positive reception. On January 14, 1926, conductor Arturo Toscanini directed his first concert with the New York Philharmonic which included the American premiere of Pines of Rome. He performed the piece at his last performance with the orchestra, in 1945. Respighi, who had arrived in the US to undergo a concert tour in December 1925, conducted the work with the Philadelphia Orchestra a day after Toscanini's American premiere.

Lorenzo Molajoli and Ettore Panizza both made recordings with the Milan Symphony Orchestra; Molajoli's recording was released by Columbia Records and Panizza's recording was released by Odeon and Decca Records. In 1935, Piero Coppola and the Paris Conservatory Orchestra recorded the music for EMI, released by in the UK by His Master's Voice and in the US by RCA Victor on 78-rpm discs. Toscanini recorded the music with the NBC Symphony Orchestra in Carnegie Hall in 1953. The music was recorded in stereophonic sound by Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Orchestra Hall in 1957, also for RCA.

Use in film and elsewhere

• An edited version was used to accompany "flying", frolicking humpback whales in the film Fantasia 2000. The second movement is omitted, along with the nightingale's song in the third and the English horn solo in the fourth.
• The piece was also used in its entirety in A Movie (1958) by Bruce Conner.
• The piece was used in Fireworks (1947), an avant-garde film directed by Kenneth Anger.
• The very opening of the work was used at the beginning of the 1983 song "City of Love" released on the album 90125 by the rock band Yes.

In addition to Sergei Prokofiev and Gustav Holst, film composer John Williams cites Respighi as a great influence and his music for the Planet Krypton, early on in Superman, was strongly modeled after the fourth movement of this piece.

Film composer Basil Poledouris, in his score for Conan the Barbarian (1982) was influenced by various other musical works, including Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky cantata (1938), the choral music of Carl Orff, such as Carmina Burana (1937), and this piece. Poledouris' work on that score is reminiscent of Respighi's second movement in particular, with its rumbling tam-tam, strong brass harmony, rising bass lines, and building string ostinati.^{[citation needed]}

References

Bibliography

• Program notes by Stephanie von Buchau, written for Deutsche Grammophon's production of the recording by the Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Herbert von Karajan.
• Borowski, George P. Upton Felix; Upton, George Putnam (2005). The Standard Opera and Concert Guide Part Two. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 978-1-41918-139-9. 
• Frank, Mortimer H. (2002). Arturo Toscanini: The NBC Years. Amadeus Press. ISBN 978-1-57467-069-1. 

External links

• Program notes