Was Respighi a Fascist?

The short answer is No. The longer answer has to acknowledge that anyone prominent in public life in a totalitarian regime, like Strauss in Hitler’s Germany or Shostakovich in Stalin’s Soviet Union, can scarcely avoid coming into compromising contact with the authorities.

So what does that mean in Respighi’s case?

As Italy’s most famous composer, during the fourteen years he had left to him after Mussolini seized power in 1922 he was inevitably exposed to political influence, even if it was only through such flattery as being awarded membership of the Reale Accademia d’Italia in 1932. Mussolini particularly admired the three Roman symphonic poems, Fontane di Roma, Pini di Roma and Feste romane – presumably because they so effectively romanticised and glorified his capital city.

And is there anything Fascist about those pieces?

Again, No. While it is true that Respighi’s view of the city moved on from the freshness of the “Fountains of Rome” to something more imposing in the “Pines of Rome” and something positively grandiose in “Roman Festivals” – apparently in accordance with the developing imperialist politics of the time – this could be result of nothing more sinister than a composer’s natural ambition to go one better, or at least bigger, with each succeeding work in a series. The most eloquent defence of Respighi in this respect is the simple fact that Arturo Toscanini, who was firmly opposed to the Mussolini regime, not only gave the first performance of Feste romane but continued to conduct it and record it in the post-War period.

But what about Respighi’s support for the notorious 1932 Manifesto against progressive musical trends?

Certainly, it wasn’t the most sensible thing he ever did. On the other hand, it cannot have been politically motivated because Mussolini was actually on the side of the modernists.

So he was very conservative as a composer then?

Yes and No. Although his musical language did not advance much beyond that of Stravinsky’s Petrushka or Strauss’s Salome, he did make progress by turning backwards. He was an early exponent of neo-classicism (long before Prokofiev and Stravinsky) and he enriched his harmonic vocabulary by frequently having recourse to the modes of Gregorian chant - to which he was introduced by his wife soon after their marriage in 1919. Elsa Respighi survived her husband by sixty years, incidentally, and died in Rome as recently as 1996.

What was Respighi’s greatest quality as a composer?

Whatever your opinion of his music you have to agree that he was one of the great masters of orchestration. He learned the basics of that particular art in his student years from Rimsky-Korsakov, financing his trips to St Petersburg by playing the viola, and continued to develop it throughout his career. When Puccini needed advice on orchestration he came to Respighi to find it.

Gerald Larner©

further reading

Respighi, Elsa: Ottorino Respighi

(for those who understand the language the original Italian version of Elsa Respighi’s biography is more informative than the unfortunately abridged English translation)

further listening

Fountains of Rome, Pines of Rome, Roman Festivals - Orchestra dell’ Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia/Daniele Gatti - Conifer Classics 75605 51292 2