Biography

Italian composer who introduced Russian orchestral colour and some of the violence of Richard Strauss's harmonic techniques into Italian music. He studied at the Liceo of Bologna and later with Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov in St. Petersburg, where he was first violist in the Opera Orchestra. From his foreign masters Respighi acquired a command of orchestral colour and an interest in orchestral composition. A piano concerto by Respighi was performed at Bologna in 1902; a "notturno" for orchestra was played at a concert in the Metropolitan Opera House that year. His comic opera Re Enzo and the opera Semirama brought him recognition and an appointment in 1913 to the St. Cecilia Academy in Rome as professor of composition. He became director of the conservatory in 1924 but resigned in 1926. Respighi was drawn to the sensual, decadent climate of the Rome depicted by the poet Gabriele D'Annunzio, and in his celebrated suites--Pini di Roma (Pines of Rome, 1923-24) and Fontane di Roma (Fountains of Rome, 1914-16) especially--he sought to convey the subtlety and colour of the poet's imagination. Other suites include Vetrate di chiesa (Church Windows, 1927); Gli ucelli (The Birds, 1927); Feste Romane (Roman Festivals, 1929); and Trittico Botticelliano (Botticelli Triptych, 1927, for chamber orchestra)
- IMDb mini biography by: Anonymous