# The underrated Respighi Violin Sonata



## alessandrovle

I think it is a wonderful piece that deserves more consideration.
Here it is my performance with violinist Rebecca Raimondi!


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## joen_cph

It sounds like a nice piece. 
I thought I had it in my collection, but no - I´ll keep it in mind now.


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## majlis

Have it by Josef Suk-Josef Hala, and best, Heifetz-Bay (1950).


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## Jeffrey Smith

Actually, almost everything by Resphigi, beyond the orchestral warhorses*, is underrated and well worth searching out.

*the Roman tone poems, the Birds, Ancient Airs and Dances, etc.


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## majlis

Two very interesting string quartets: "Dorico", and one previous. And one very fine violin concerto.


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## Pugg

Why on earth is this underrated


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## regenmusic

alessandrovle said:


> I think it is a wonderful piece that deserves more consideration.
> Here it is my performance with violinist Rebecca Raimondi!


I don't see how being considered one of the top 30 composers of his generation by scholars can be underrated.


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## alessandrovle

I think he is not an underrated composer, but his Sonata is not much performed compared with others.



regenmusic said:


> I don't see how being considered one of the top 30 composers of his generation by scholars can be underrated.


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## fluteman

First of all, bravo Alessandro for that wonderful performance. Respighi is certainly not underrated by me, nor is that sonata. I've long had the Kyung-Wha Chung and Krystian Zimerman recording, well paired with the Richard Strauss violin and piano sonata.


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## alessandrovle

fluteman said:


> First of all, bravo Alessandro for that wonderful performance. Respighi is certainly not underrated by me, nor is that sonata. I've long had the Kyung-Wha Chung and Krystian Zimerman recording, well paired with the Richard Strauss violin and piano sonata.


Thank you very much fluteman. I didn't know that recording! I only knew there was one by Heifetz - that is full of cuts - and that sometimes Kavakos performs it live. Strangely, it appears that almost nobody knows this Sonata in Italy but that it is more appreciated in Europe and USA. When we performed it in London somebody knew it, but when we propose it in Italy everybody says: "oh, I didn't know that Respighi had written a Violin Sonata" and similar. As usual _nemo propheta in patria_...


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## Truckload

alessandrovle - Thank you for sharing your wonderful performance, I truly loved it. I am so glad that young people such as yourself are rediscovering and championing the music of Respighi.

As with most of the late romantic composers who lived and worked in the 20th century Respighi was reviled and mocked by the academics of the 20th century because he wrote beautiful, emotional, skillfully crafted and accessible music. As audiences increasingly accepted and appreciated his music, academics increased their hostility. You will find that Rachmaninov and others suffered similar treatment. The ideological battle for the future of art music continues, and you will find ample examples on this forum.

Notice the post by Jeffrey Smith above in which he dismissively refers to true masterpieces such as the tone poems of the Roman trilogy as "warhorses" as if the very fact that these works are appreciated somehow makes them unworthy of being performed. Perfect example of the strategy of the academic modernists at work. Most people who hear that sort of thing often enough and coming from people with high academic credentials, will think it must be true, and the attitude will start to be repeated by others.


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## arpeggio

alessandrovle,

I understand the point you were trying to make.

Excellent performance.

My recording is:

Dynamic CDS 404 Respighi: Chamber Works

SELECTIONS:
_Piano Quintet_ [1,2,3,4]
_Adagio con variazioni for cello & piano_ [4]
_Violin Sonata in D Minor_ [1]
_Melodia in E Major for Violin & Piano _[2]

ARTISTS:
Pagliani, Stephano \ Violin [1]
Cibin, Rodolfo \ Violin [2]
Comuzzo, Demetrio \ Viola [3]
Simoncini, Luca \ Cello [4]
Vincenzi, Marco \ Piano [All Selections]


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## Jeffrey Smith

Truckload said:


> alessandrovle - Thank you for sharing your wonderful performance, I truly loved it. I am so glad that young people such as yourself are rediscovering and championing the music of Respighi.
> 
> As with most of the late romantic composers who lived and worked in the 20th century Respighi was reviled and mocked by the academics of the 20th century because he wrote beautiful, emotional, skillfully crafted and accessible music. As audiences increasingly accepted and appreciated his music, academics increased their hostility. You will find that Rachmaninov and others suffered similar treatment. The ideological battle for the future of art music continues, and you will find ample examples on this forum.
> 
> Notice the post by Jeffrey Smith above in which he dismissively refers to true masterpieces such as the tone poems of the Roman trilogy as "warhorses" as if the very fact that these works are appreciated somehow makes them unworthy of being performed. Perfect example of the strategy of the academic modernists at work. Most people who hear that sort of thing often enough and coming from people with high academic credentials, will think it must be true, and the attitude will start to be repeated by others.


You misunderstand me, or perhaps I did not make myself clear.
The "warhorses" are well known, so you can not say they are underrated. The rest of Resphigi's work is far less known, but should be better known, and therefore is underrated. I was in essence making a comment on popularity, not musical quality, and trying to point out that the violin sonata is not the only Resphigi work which should be better known.


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## arpeggio

Jeffrey Smith said:


> You misunderstand me, or perhaps I did not make myself clear.
> The "warhorses" are well known, so you can not say they are underrated. The rest of Resphigi's work is far less known, but should be better known, and therefore is underrated. I was in essence making a comment on popularity, not musical quality, and trying to point out that the violin sonata is not the only Resphigi work which should be better known.


I understood what you were saying.


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## Truckload

Jeffrey Smith said:


> You misunderstand me, or perhaps I did not make myself clear.
> The "warhorses" are well known, so you can not say they are underrated. The rest of Resphigi's work is far less known, but should be better known, and therefore is underrated. I was in essence making a comment on popularity, not musical quality, and trying to point out that the violin sonata is not the only Resphigi work which should be better known.


Glad to hear you did not intend the term negatively. And I did not intend any criticism of you personally. Any classical music lover could find themselves in the same boat without any negative intention.

Warhorse is sometimes used deliberately by some academics as a synonym for hackneyed, banal, clichéd, or trite. The entry in Groves for Respighi is full of snide and condescending remarks. I don't think I can safely quote Groves as it is copyrighted material, but in a single paragraph some words and phrases used include, flamboyant garishness, simple, and child-like.

Here is an interesting brief essay:

http://www.musicweb-international.com/respighi/resplace.htm


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## fluteman

I hesitate to tread in this area, but here goes: Respighi is one of those composers with superb theatrical instincts, and for reasons that completely elude me, several of the great theatrical composers of the 20th century are attacked by many critics. By "theatrical composers", I don't necessarily mean composers of music most or all of which is explicitly intended to accompany staged theatrical productions, but rather music that converys a compelling dramatic narrative, even without an actual story or plot, actors or singers. Dmitri Shostakovich and Leonard Bernstein were also great theatrical composers, in my opinion, and are also underrated. I guess I don't buy the branch of modernism that seems to demand that serious art music [always] be strictly abstract. in other words, saying Respighi's music "is often just film music, vulgar" misses the boat for me.


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## arpeggio

I remember when I was in college I heard a professor complain that Respighi was to Hollywood sounding. On one of the rare occasions that I zapped a teacher I reminded him that most of Respighi's masterpieces were composed in the 1920's, before sound movies were invented. Maybe the problem with Hollywood composers is that they sounded to much like Respighi.

I have spent my entire life listening to classical music types grousing about Mozart or Beethoven or Schoenberg or Cage or whatever in a vain attempt to impress others.


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## fluteman

arpeggio said:


> I remember when I was in college I heard a professor complain that Respighi was to Hollywood sounding. On one of the rare occasions that I zapped a teacher I reminded him that most of Respighi's masterpieces were composed in the 1920's, before sound movies were invented. Maybe the problem with Hollywood composers is that they sounded to much like Respighi.
> 
> I have spent my entire life listening to classical music types grousing about Mozart or Beethoven or Schoenberg or Cage or whatever in a vain attempt to impress others.


I can sympathize with that. I say tell me what you like and maybe even why, rather than complain about who or what you don't like. And even apart from great composers who wrote for the movies like Prokofiev, Hollywood has felt the influence of the leading composers of our time. John Williams borrowed from Stravinsky's Sacrificial Dance from The Rite of Spring for the theme for Jaws. Just today, we took our kids to see Zootopia, and saw the preview for another childrens' animated feature called Ice Age: A New Beginning. The score of the latter movie includes Spiegel im Spiegel by Arvo Pärt, which has also been used in other movie scores. And the influence of The Pines of Rome can be heard in a number of movies, in my opinion. So I'm with you "zapping" your college professor.


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## alessandrovle

arpeggio said:


> alessandrovle,
> 
> I understand the point you were trying to make.
> 
> Excellent performance.
> 
> My recording is:
> 
> Dynamic CDS 404 Respighi: Chamber Works
> 
> SELECTIONS:
> _Piano Quintet_ [1,2,3,4]
> _Adagio con variazioni for cello & piano_ [4]
> _Violin Sonata in D Minor_ [1]
> _Melodia in E Major for Violin & Piano _[2]
> 
> ARTISTS:
> Pagliani, Stephano \ Violin [1]
> Cibin, Rodolfo \ Violin [2]
> Comuzzo, Demetrio \ Viola [3]
> Simoncini, Luca \ Cello [4]
> Vincenzi, Marco \ Piano [All Selections]


Dear Arpeggio,
I know personally Stefano Pagliani... but I didn't know that he recorded this Sonata!
Thank you very much for your information, I will search the CD on the local Library.


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## alessandrovle

I am really glad that such an interesting conversation has been started here!

I think that many composers have managed to write wonderful "light" music and in the same time music of great depth and usually they were more famous for the entertaining music. Ravel complained about his Bolero being so famous and at the same time one of his worst works. Beethoven was really famous for his marches. There are to many examples about this... Morricone, the film composer, often says that he would have preferred to be known for his "contemporary art music" than for his soundtracks.

About Respighi.. the only thing I can add is that he played the first performance of this Sonata at the piano, with Federico Sarti at the violin, and that he was really fond of the result: ‘Inni! Non faccio per dire, ma abbiamo suonato bene. Io compreso!’ (‘Praise be! I shouldn’t say so, but we played it well. Me included!’)


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## chesapeake bay

A very nice piece and well played, thanks for sharing


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## Heliogabo

Respighi wrote two violin sonatas, this thread is about which of them?


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## chesapeake bay

the one in B minor can't you hear that key!!


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## Hugh Gee

I agree with what you say, but the warhorse reference is not derogatory, I think, but simply implies that concert performances of Resphigi are so limited, when he produced so much wonderful music.


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