Ottorino Respighi is often thought of as a four-hit wonder for the so-called "Roman Trilogy," plus the Ancient Airs and Dances, orchestral renditions of Renaissance lute pieces, one suite of which is heard here. However, he wrote a good deal of other music, including nine operas that would bear performers' exploration. The listener surely has plenty of strong recordings of The Pines of Rome and The Fountains of Rome to choose from, but there are several reasons to pick this 2020 release from Riccardo Chailly and the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala, a group with which Chailly has developed a close relationship. What makes the two tone poems enduringly listenable is their compactness and their quasi-symphonic structure, each with four movements falling into something like the traditional configuration, and with each of the movements unfolding according to an internal logic even as it memorably fills the programmatic bill. It's this balance that Chailly gets: he never overdoes the pictorial aspect, but he delivers plenty of thrills to the listener as The Pines of Rome marches along the Via Appia, or the fountain of the Villa Medici quietly winds down the day. Further, Chailly offers a trio of early Respighi works that may be called rarities. From the first years of the 20th century, these pieces show Respighi's melodic gift and the way he began to tailor it to larger structures, which is just the thing that makes the famous tone poems work. A delightful release that lives up to its single-name Respighi title, it gives a sense of the whole composer.
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