Ottorino Respighi learned violin from his father, then studied early music, and went on to a promising career as a violinist before becoming a full-time composer. Best known for his Roman trilogy, he also experimented in early music styles and wrote about compositional principles for Italian students.

He enjoyed taking Renaissance and medieval musical forms and melodies and integrated them into the harmony and texture of works from the end of the previous century. As a student of history, he knew that keeping the past alive was a delicate process of speaking the old within the new without losing the power of that oldness. During his lifetime, he wrote 14 orchestral works, 9 operas, and numerous shorter pieces and ballets.

While his work is unquestionably nationalistic and Romantic in spirit, he avoided politicizing it as much as was possible during the turbulent 1930s. Born in Bologna, Italy in 1879, he died in Rome in 1936, sparing him the worst of the turmoil to come.

Suggested Recordings (MusicWeb)

Ottorino Respighi - Ancient Airs & Dances; Trittico Botticelliano (Jesús López-Cobos, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra)