Ottorino Respighi
Ottorino Respighi was an Italian composer, violinist, teacher, and musicologist and one of the leading Italian composers of the early 20th century. His compositions range over operas, ballets, orchestral suites, choral songs, chamber music, and transcriptions of Italian compositions of the 16th–18th centuries, but his best known and most performed works are his three orchestral tone poems which brought him international fame: Fountains of Rome, Pines of Rome, and Roman Festivals.
Respighi was born in Bologna to a musical and artistic family. He was encouraged by his father to pursue music at a young age, and took formal tuition in the violin and piano. In 1891, he enrolled at the Liceo Musicale di Bologna, where he studied the violin, viola, and composition, was principal violinist at the Russian Imperial Theatre, and studied briefly with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. He relocated to Rome in 1913 to become professor of composition at the Liceo Musicale di Santa Cecilia. During this period he married his pupil, singer Elsa Olivieri-Sangiacomo. In 1923, Respighi quit his professorship to dedicate time to tour and compose, but continued to teach until 1935. He performed and conducted in various capacities across the United States and South America from 1925 until his death.
In late 1935, while composing his opera Lucrezia, Respighi became ill and was diagnosed with bacterial endocarditis. He died four months later, aged 56. His wife Elsa outlived him for almost 60 years, championing her late husband's works and legacy until her death in 1996. Conductor and composer Salvatore Di Vittorio completed several of Respighi's incomplete and previously unpublished works, including the finished Violin Concerto in A major which premiered in 2010.
Biography
Early years
Respighi was born on 9 July 1879 at 8 Via Guido Reni, an apartment building to the side of Palazzo Fantuzzi in Bologna. The third and youngest child of Giuseppe and Ersilia Respighi, he had a middle class upbringing with his sister Amelia; his brother Alberto died at age nine. Giuseppe, a postal worker, was an accomplished pianist who studied the instrument with Stefano Golinelli and taught music at the Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna. Ersilia came from a family of distinguished sculptors. Respighi's paternal grandfather was a violinist and organist at the cathedral in modern day Fidenza. Amelia described Respighi as closed in nature but sincere, sensitive, and generous.Giuseppe encouraged his son, but to his initial disappointment, Respighi showed little interest in music until he was almost eight. After being taught basic piano and violin from his father Respighi began formal tuition in the latter, but quit abruptly after his teacher hit his hand with a ruler for playing a passage incorrectly. He resumed lessons with a more patient teacher. Respighi's piano skills were a hit-and-miss affair initially, but his father once arrived home to find Respighi confidently reciting the Symphonic Studies by Robert Schumann; he had learned to play the piece in secret. Respighi remained a self-taught pianist and in later life avoided scales in his compositions due to his inability to play them correctly. Nonetheless he quickly took to other instruments; for example, he taught himself the harp in the course of several days.
In 1891, the family relocated to 2 Via de' Castagnoli where Respighi was able to have his own studio. In his seclusion he collected books and began a lifelong interest in geography, science, and languages. Respighi became fluent, and read literature in, eleven languages in his adult life. His wife recalled the composer's meeting with Albert Einstein in Berlin, who was impressed with Respighi's understanding of his scientific theories.
Life in Bologna, 1890–1913
In October 1890, Respighi began two years of schooling at the Ginnasio Guinizelli. He enrolled at the Liceo Musicale di Bologna in the following year, studying the violin and viola with Federico Sarti and organ, counterpoint, and fugue with Cesare Dall'Olio. Among Respighi's earliest completed and dated compositions at this time were the Piccola ouverture and Preludio for small orchestra. Four years into his course, Respighi began classes in composition and music history, firstly with Liceo director Giuseppe Martucci and then Luigi Torchi. Martucci, a proponent of Bologna's musical life and composer of non-operatic Italian music, became an influential figure for the young Respighi. In June 1899, he received his diploma in the playing of the violin, performing Le Streghe by Niccolò Paganini in his exam. Not long after Respighi joined the orchestra at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna and played the violin for several seasons.In the winter of 1900, Respighi accepted the role of principal violist in the orchestra of the Russian Imperial Theatre in Saint Petersburg during its opera season. During this time he met Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, a composer Respighi greatly admired, who gave him valuable and influential lessons in orchestration and composition across five months. Further lessons were arranged when Respighi returned to Russia in the winter of 1902 for another series of performances. Respighi finalised his studies at the Liceo Musicale with an advanced course in composition, for which he completed his Preludio, corale e fuga, written under Rimsky-Korsakov's guidance. Performed as part of his final exam in June 1901, the piece was a resounding success. Upon awarding the diploma, Martucci said: "Respighi is not a pupil, Respighi is a master."
In 1902, Respighi travelled to Berlin where he received brief tuition from composer Max Bruch. Despite sources incorrectly stating that he studied with Bruch in 1908, Respighi's wife stated that Respighi in fact did not study with Bruch at all. In 1905, Respighi completed his first opera, the comedy Re Enzo. Between 1903 and 1910, as his local reputation was on the rise, Respighi's principal activities were performing at the Teatro Comunale and as first violinist in composer Bruno Mugellini's touring chamber quintet. He collaborated with various singers, in particular Chiarina Fino-Savio, who performed several of Respighi's songs written for solo voice and piano and set to words by poets Ada Negri and Carlo Zangarini. This included perhaps his most well known, "Nebbie".
In 1906, Respighi completed his first of many transcriptions of pieces by 17th and 18th century composers. His version of "Lamento d'Arianna" by Claudio Monteverdi for voice and orchestra became his first international success when it was performed during his visit to Berlin in 1908. This second stay in Germany lasted for almost a year, after Hungarian soprano Etelka Gerster hired Respighi as an accompanist at her singing school which greatly influenced his subsequent vocal compositions. Respighi met Arthur Nikisch, then conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, who arranged to conduct his Monteverdi transcription in concert with famed singer Julia Culp as soloist. Biographer Michael Webb considered this a milestone in the rediscovery of Monteverdi's output, and the critical success of the performance encouraged Respighi to produce further transcriptions of older works. This included two sonatas for viola d'amore and harpsichord from original music by fellow Bolognese composer Attilio Ariosti.
The musical influence from Respighi's time in Germany is discernible in his second opera Semirâma, which marked the first professional staging of a Respighi work. It premiered at the Teatro Comunale in November 1910 to considerable success; two years later, critic Giannotto Bastianelli wrote that the piece marked a transition in Respighi's style from verismo to Decadentism, and praised his use of rich polyphony. Working on the opera, however, left Respighi exhausted. He wrote each individual score by hand to save money and he fell asleep at the post-performance banquet. It is thought that Respighi's inconsistent sleeping patterns throughout his life may have been caused by narcolepsy.
In 1910, Respighi was involved in a short lived group named the Lega dei Cinque, which included Bastianelli and fellow composers Ildebrando Pizzetti, Gian Francesco Malipiero, and Renzo Bossi. In the same year he was appointed a member of the Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna. In the next, Respighi replaced Torchi as the teacher of composition at the Liceo Musicale, which lasted until his move to Rome.
Life in Rome, 1913–1918
In January 1913, Respighi left Bologna to become professor of composition at the Liceo Musicale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. Among his students during this time were composers Vittorio Rieti, Ennio Porrino, and Daniele Amfitheatrof, conductors Antonio Pedrotti and Mario Rossi, pianist Pietro Scarpini, and organist Fernando Germani. However, the busy and crowded atmosphere of the city unnerved Respighi who found it increasingly difficult to teach and compose. He became withdrawn, homesick, and suffered from irregular sleep.After a return visit to Germany for several performances in 1913, Respighi focused primarily on teaching. One of his new students in his fugue and composition class was 19-year-old Elsa Olivieri-Sangiacomo; the two started a relationship and Elsa, fourteen years his junior, and Respighi married in January 1919. The pair shared a love for Gregorian chant and Respighi often requested for Elsa to sing monodies to him, sometimes for as long as two hours. From 1921 they lived in a flat in Palazzo Borghese which they named I Pini. Elsa recalled composer Giacomo Puccini saying their marriage was "the most beautiful and perfect thing I know." The Respighis' mutual friend, librettist Claudio Guastalla, said the marriage "functioned on an almost transcendental level of human and spiritual harmony."
In February 1915, publisher Tito Ricordi took an interest in Respighi, who agreed to publish a collection of transcriptions for violin and piano from 1908, namely pieces by Nicola Porpora, Giuseppe Tartini, and Francesco Maria Veracini. In the same year he had a minor involvement in the Società Italiana di Musica Moderna, a group founded in 1915 by Alfredo Casella and other staff members of the Liceo Musicale in an effort to modernise Italian music as a result of Casella's visit to France.
Following Italy's entry into World War I in 1915 the 36-year-old Respighi was eligible for military service, but his position at the Liceo Musicale granted him temporary exemption. Respighi soon entered a low period, for he was deeply saddened by the death of his mother from pneumonia in March 1916. Upon receiving the news of her illness his departure for Bologna was delayed; she died by the time he had arrived. Respighi returned to Rome and resumed work for a brief period until he stopped and went back to Bologna. According to Elsa he spent much of his days in bed, ate little, and refused to see anyone. He recovered in Eremo di Tizzano, a religious retreat in the country hills by Casalecchio di Reno. His short piece for organ, the Preludio, was composed there. In a letter from January 1917 to Fino-Savio, Respighi wrote: "I am alone, sad and sick."
In March 1917 his first orchestral tone poem, Fountains of Rome, premiered at the Teatro Augusteo in Rome. The premiere was originally scheduled in late 1916, but the concert ended early due to the hostile audience reaction to music by Richard Wagner performed in the opening half. Respighi was disappointed with the lukewarm response at the Augusteo, which fuelled his desire to write a more successful follow-up. Following the premiere he toured Italy and Switzerland in another chamber group, this time with Fino-Savio, violinist Arrigo Serato, and pianist Ernesto Consolo. In December 1917 the first of Respighi's three orchestral suites, Ancient Airs and Dances, also premiered in Rome. Each suite features free transcriptions of pieces for lute pieces by various 16th century Italian composers. The sole copy of the full score was somehow lost after the concert, and Respighi was forced to re-write it using the individual parts.
In the summer of 1916 Respighi travelled to Viareggio to meet Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev, operator of the Ballets Russes. Diaghilev wished to stage La Boutique fantasque, a new production based on the baroque and classical periods. Respighi accepted 1,500 lire to orchestrate the ballet, for which he used piano pieces from Péchés de vieillesse by Gioachino Rossini.