Ottorino Respighi

Short biography Ottorino Respighi was born on 9 July 1879 in Bologna, Italy, and showed musical talent from an early age. He studied violin and composition at the Liceo Musicale di Bologna, where his teachers included Luigi Torchi and Giuseppe Martucci. He subsequently traveled to St. Petersburg, where he studied orchestration with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, an experience that profoundly shaped his command of the orchestra. Later he studied with Max Bruch in Berlin. From 1913 until his death on 18 April 1936, he was based primarily in Rome, serving as professor of composition at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, of which he later became director.

Historical placement Respighi is generally classified as a late Romantic composer, working at a time when Italian instrumental music was reasserting itself against the long dominance of opera. His music is characterized by vivid orchestral color, a gift for programmatic description, and an interest in early music and modality. He is particularly significant for revitalizing the Italian orchestral tradition in the early twentieth century and for bringing international attention to Rome as a center of concert music. His Roman tone poems remain among the most frequently performed Italian orchestral works of the period.

Personal connections Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was Respighi's teacher in St. Petersburg, and the Russian master's mastery of orchestration had a lasting influence on Respighi's own orchestral writing. Giuseppe Martucci taught Respighi at the Liceo Musicale di Bologna and encouraged his interest in instrumental music at a time when Italian composition was dominated by opera. Max Bruch gave Respighi composition lessons during his time in Berlin. Elsa Olivieri-Sangiacomo, whom Respighi married in 1919, was herself a composer and became an important guardian and advocate of his legacy after his death.

Important works
Fontane di Roma – Symphonic poem (1916)
Pini di Roma – Symphonic poem (1924)
Feste Romane – Symphonic poem (1928)
Antiche danze ed arie per liuto, Suite No. 1 – Orchestral suite (1917)
Antiche danze ed arie per liuto, Suite No. 2 – Orchestral suite (1923)
Antiche danze ed arie per liuto, Suite No. 3 – Orchestral suite (1932)
Gli uccelli – Orchestral suite (1928)
Trittico botticelliano – Orchestral suite (1927)
La boutique fantasque – Ballet (arranged from Rossini, 1919)
Belkis, regina di Saba – Ballet (1932)