The Pines of Rome - Tone Poem for Orchestra

PINES OF ROME (PINI DI ROMA) is perhaps the best loved and most performed of the trilogy of programmatic tone poems in which Ottorino Respighi depicts Rome and particular aspects of Italian life. It was completed in the summer of 1924, after he had been working on the work for several years. It was premiered at the Teatro Augusteo in Rome on 14 December 1924 with the theatre's orchestra conducted by Bernardino Molinari. It was published the following year by Ricordi - Milan. As soon as he arrived in Rome in 1913, the wonderful Roman fountains and the evergreen beautiful pinias stimulated his imagination. The composer dedicated his second tone poem to the majestic pinias, which he depicts in different places and at different times of the day. Pines of Rome is organized in four connected parts, each title specifying the location of the tree. Respighi has written program notes for each. Some scholars find in the arrangement of the parts symbolism related to the image of the two-faced Janus, who has two faces, both looking forward and backward in time. The dramaturgy of the work can be examined in this way. The short, roughly three-minute first movement, The Pines of the Villa Borghese, depicts children enjoying themselves noisily in a grove. They dance in a circle, play soldiers, sing and march. The thematic material sounds choppy, being built on folk dance tunes. The second part, Pines Near a Catacomb, depicts the shadows of the trees around its entrance. From the depths rises a Gregorian psalmody, which floats through the air like a solemn hymn and gradually and mysteriously disperses. Both main themes have a dark and shadowy atmosphere, much as the lone trees in the area seem to. French horns and strings are heard in the culcination. Then the themes begin to fade, the low registers of the instruments creating a mysterious atmosphere. The movement ends with a flute and bassoon solo that slowly fades out. The slow third movement, The Pines of the Janiculum, features the clear outline of trees on a hill under a full moon. The song of a nightingale is heard. There are also two main themes here, based on broken chords. The first is in the clarinet and is built pentatonically, creating a magical and mystical atmosphere. The second is tonal and is coloured by the harmonic playing of major and minor. According to some researchers, the theme in the clarinet depicts the moon illuminating the hill on which there was a pagan temple named after the god Janus. The movement is nostalgic and perhaps it is a personal confession for the composer himself, a throwback to his memories. At the end, after the last clarinet solo, the song of the nightingale appears with delicate accompaniment by the first violins. The score notes a particular recording of the nightingale that can be reproduced with a Brunswick Panatrope phonograph, something that had not been done before. The fourth part, The Pines of the Appian Way, depicts a magical landscape - misty dawn, lonely trees, muffled footsteps. Trumpets sound - it is the glow of the sun that has just risen. An army rushes toward the Sacred Road, ascending in triumph to the Capitol. The movement is based on a motif built on wide intervallic leaps. Despite the restless nature of the music, it is rhythmically organized. The finale is particularly impressive with its skilful use of the timbral possibilities of the orchestral texture. The composer's wife Elsa Respighi recalls that the final bars of the work were "drowned out by the audience's frenetic applause" and a second performance was arranged two weeks after the premiere, on December 28^th , which also sold out immediately. The American premiere of the work was on January 14^th, 1926 during Arturo Toscanini's first concert as conductor of the New York Philharmonic. Respighi, who was on a concert tour of the United States in December 1925, then conducted it with the Philadelphia Philharmonic; Toscanini included it in his last performance with the New York Philharmonic in 1945.