Classical Court

Discovered Obscure Work......... [yt]

68.104.247.26

Todd Krieger

A

Respighi "Church Windows"......

(I had to use the Google Translate, and then resolve the name of the work itself..... The Japanese translates to "Stained Glass Windows".... )

This sounded like a little bit of Sibelius, Stravinsky, and Copland (and Respighi), all mixed into one.....

Won't comment on the performance, never heard this work before...... But the music sounded sublime..... Jesus Lopez-Cobos conducting......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmvCvkYdmiA (Open in New Window)

Follow Ups:

Lopez-Cobos recorded it in Cincinnati with Telarc. nt - steve.ott@kctcs.edu 09:14:51 09/19/21 (0)
Nt
That's a wonderful work! - Chris from Lafayette 11:01:03 09/18/21 (3)
Three of the movements are based on Respighi's earlier piano works. (The title of the piano pieces is "Three Gregorian Preludes" or "Three Preludes on Gregorian Melodies".) I hear the work as echt Respighi and do not hear the influences of the other composers you mention, although the work conjures up for me plenty of "gladiator" and/or "biblical epic" scores by movie composers who were influenced by Respighi. The composer's orchestrations are so effective that there have been a number of "audiophile" recordings of the work, starting with the Keith Clark / Pacific SO recording on the Reference label which, IIRC, was partially financed by HP of TAS fame. There's also a much earlier (and very fine - but mono only!) recording on Mercury of this work, which was remastered by by Tom Fine a few years ago. Ormandy had a nice recording of the work too. Other recordings I've liked over the years include Lopez-Cobos (the conductor in your link) / Cincinnati SO on Telarc and (probably my favorite at the moment) John Neschling / Royal Liege PO on BIS. There are also a couple of excellent recordings of the original piano pieces which Respighi orchestrated - Shcherbakov on Naxos and Babayan on the ProPiano label.

Here's Babayan's performance on YouTube of the first Prelude which, when orchestrated, became "The Flight into Egypt":

View YouTube Video

Just beautiful!
- RE: That's a wonderful work! - Todd Krieger 19:17:46 09/18/21 (0)
  The music was sublime, but it reminded me more of Sibelius and Copland's "Old West" than "church windows"...... It's kind of a musical "Blind Man and the Elephant"..... If you will.........
- I have the John Neschling recording as well, like it and listened to it today - John N 13:46:07 09/18/21 (1)
  What do you think of his other Respighi recordings?
  - I like all of his Respighi recordings - Chris from Lafayette 00:15:25 09/19/21 (0)
    I may be missing one, but I like all the Neschling albums I've heard in that Respighi series. (Of course the MCh engineering may have something to do with that!)
    
    Edits: 09/19/21

Post a Followup:

FAQ

Post a Message!

Forgot Password?

Moniker (Username):
Password (Optional):
	Remember my Moniker & Password (What's this?) Eat Me
E-Mail (Optional):
Subject:

Message:	(Posts are subject to Content Rules)

Optional Link URL:
Optional Link Title:
Optional Image URL:
Upload Image:
E-mail Replies:	Automagically notify you when someone responds.

To view your new posting or follow-up, click on the RELOAD or REFRESH button on your browser.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

VH Audio