Respighi: Suite in G for Strings and Organ

The start of a new, exciting series on Brilliant Classics: the Complete Orchestral Works by Ottorino Respighi.

The first instalment contains Respighi’s most popular works: the spectacular Roman Trilogy (Pini di Roma, Feste di Roma, Fontane di Roma), depicting in colourful and brilliantly orchestrated tableaux the characteristics of Rome: its mystical pines, its dazzling and spiritual fountains and its exuberant (and noisy) celebrations.

Also included is the wonderfully evocative suite “The Birds”, and two suites for strings. The Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma, conducted by maestro Francesco di Vecchia have Roman blood in their veins, and like few others evoke the atmosphere of this wonderful, typically Italian, music.

The orchestra won high critical acclaim with their superb recordings of Casella and Martucci.

Poulenc’s dramatic, expressive and wild patchwork quilt, together with Respighi’s opulent and luxurious homage to the eighteenth century, and Rheinberger’s gloriously melodic and virtuoso nineteenth-century grand concerto with its echoes of Schumann.

“I place King’s performance up with the best” (Poulenc) American Record Guide 2008

“This disc presents three of the finest organ/orchestra collaborations in the repertoire.....The performances of all three works are outstanding; it would be difficult to imagine any better. Bathed in the fine acoustic of Bath Abbey, the strings and horns produce a lush, luminous, vibrant, clear, robust sound that is matched by the clarity, color, cohesion and brilliance of the superb Klais organ. The well-balanced and blended sonorities are skillfully reproduced by the recording technicians. This recording is to be cherished for the beauty of the sound, the music and the exceptional performances.” The American Organist September 2009