Presto Recording of the Week
31st January 2020

BBC Music Magazine
October 2020
Orchestral Choice

Gramophone Magazine
October 2020
Editor's Choice

Sinfonia of London, John Wilson

Respighi: Roman Festivals
Respighi: Fountains of Rome
Respighi: Pines of Rome

Following the widespread critical acclaim of their first two recordings including a BBC Music Magazine Award John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London turn to Respighis Roman Trilogy for their third release. Born in Bologna in 1879, Respighi trained as a violinist and composer, and travelled extensively. His influences are therefore wide-ranging, from Richard Strauss and Debussy to Rimsky-Korsakov (who taught him orchestration) in addition to a love of and fascination with Plainsong and music of the Italian baroque. Fountains of Rome was the first of these three great tone poems, composed between 1913 and 1916, and inspired by a series of photographs given to him by the artist Edita Broglio. Intensely programmatic, the work sees Respighi setting out to evoke sentiments and visions suggested by four of Romes fountains contemplated at the hour in which their character is most in harmony with the surrounding landscape, or in which their beauty appears most impressive to the observer... This recording was made in Surround Sound and is available as a Hybrid SACD.

"This is a high-voltage interpretation, virtuosically played and strong on detail and drama, in which Wilson digs deep into the complexities both of Respighi’s at times eclectic imagination and his extraordinary powers of orchestration…Wilson and his orchestra more than hold their own against their rivals, and perhaps just have the edge over them thanks to Chandos’s superbly engineered recording, which is state-of-the-art, and absolutely stunning." - Gramophone Magazine, October 2020.