SACD Fritz Reiner – Respighi: Pines of Rome & Fountains of Rome

Respighi: Pines of Rome & Fountains of Rome as a hybrid multichannel SACD from Analogue Productions’ RCA Living Stereo series: Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, remastered by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound from the original master tape. All eight movements play in one sequence – first the pines, then the fountains.

Rome as a changing orchestral image

Ottorino Respighi’s Pines of Rome and Fountains of Rome approach the same city from different angles. The pines stand above children’s games, catacombs, a nocturnal landscape and an ancient road; the fountains belong to particular times of day. These are no musical guidebooks: Respighi uses places as starting points for movement, memory and light, from a single call to the full might of a large orchestra.

Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra recorded both works on 24 October 1959 at Orchestra Hall in Chicago; RCA released the coupling in 1960, with Richard Mohr as producer and Lewis Layton as recording engineer. All eight movements thus come from a single day, although the compositions are years apart – Fountains of Rome dates from 1916, Pines of Rome from 1924, and the album places the later pines first.

Four places beneath the pines

The Villa Borghese opens Pines of Rome in a world far from the catacomb that follows; Respighi then moves to the Janiculum and ends on the Appian Way. It is not only volume and tempo that change between these places, but the impression of distance: what seems close, and what appears to come from another space?

A very special detail is written into the score itself: in the Janiculum movement, Respighi asks for recorded nightingale song to be played on a gramophone – a recording becomes part of the orchestral composition. Organ and spatially separated brass extend the orchestra further; they belong to the compositional design, not to any studio trickery.

The fountains and the passing day

Fountains of Rome links Valle Giulia with dawn, the Triton Fountain with morning, Trevi with midday and the Villa Medici with sunset – four movements that turn places and times of day into a progression of their own. Water never moves the same way twice here, and a great fountain does not need the full orchestra at every instant.

Reiner and his orchestra connect all those details with the direction of each work. Rather than waiting only for the most imposing climax, follow the route towards it – Respighi’s Rome may then begin somewhere different on every visit: in the opening movement, with the nightingale, or at a transition that had slipped past unnoticed.

The hybrid multichannel SACD from Analogue Productions

CAPC 2436 SA is a hybrid multichannel SACD from Analogue Productions’ RCA Living Stereo series. According to the publisher, Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound remastered it from the original master tape. For the three-channel programme you need a multichannel-capable SACD player and a matching setup; the CD layer plays on any conventional CD player. The disc contains all eight movements of the two tone poems.

You order from Michael 45 in Germany. We arrange the US import and ship from Hilden.

More from the series: RCA Living Stereo Series

Also in other editions: LP (33⅓ RPM) · Ultra Tape

More SACDs with Fritz Reiner: Lieutenant Kijé / Song of the Nightingale · Festival · Spain

Artist page: All titles by Fritz Reiner

Customer question: Buying Analogue Productions records in Europe

Musicians

Participants and documented credit status. Track references correspond to the tracklist.

• Fritz ReinerconductorParticipation: Both works
• Chicago Symphony OrchestraorchestraParticipation: Both works

Reiner and the orchestra are documented. No further soloists assigned by name. Movement durations are not documented.