Welcome, I'm Cristina Comandașu.

Today I bring to your attention an album released by Pentatone Records on February 6th: Italian Perspectives, starring the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Riccardo Frizza.

They are recordings from 2022 and 2023 made by Bayerische Rundfunk Klassik public radio - recordings of the German orchestra who is hosting a month from now, on March 18th, the International Classical Music Awards and who, on this occasion, will receive a Special Achievement Award.

Italian Perspectives - an album on which we also discover a very well-known work by Ottorino Respighi - The Botticelli Triptych, but also rarely performed symphonic works, such as the orchestral arrangements made by Respighi for 5 of the études-tableaux by Sergei Rachmaninoff or the Symphony No. 1 by Giuseppe Martucci, which I consider the repertoire discovery of this album.

In 1929, conductor Sergei Koussevitzky asked Rachmaninoff to orchestrate some of the tableau studies created for piano. But Rachmaninoff refused, being too busy with his own career as a composer and pianist, but he agreed with Koussevitzky's idea to trust Ottorino Respighi with this task and was quite delighted with the result, as it's shown in a letter written in 1935.

Indeed, Respighi preserved the Russian spirit of Rachmaninoff's music, adding a rich orchestration that perfectly supports the images evoked by the 5 selected études-tableaux from opuses 33 and 39. With a special mention for the fourth, entitled Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf, where we see in the dialogue between the trombones and the woodwinds, indeed, a dialogue between the characters of the famous story. Here, by the way, are all 5 tableaux: The Sea and the Seagulls, The Fair, Funeral March, Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf, Oriental March.

5 études-tableaux (picture studies)

Performed by the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Riccardo Frizza, you listened to 5 études-tableaux by Sergei Rachmaninoff, orchestrated by Ottorino Respighi - excerpts from the album Perspectives italiene, released on February 6th and premiered today on Radio România Muzical.

The extraordinary orchestrator Ottorino Respighi, representative of Italian impressionism, also appears in the very famous Botticelli Triptych, which evokes three paintings by Sandro Botticelli exhibited at the Uffizzi Gallery in Florence: Primavera, Adoration of the Magi and Birth of Venus. Neoclassical sonorities, evoking the Italian Renaissance, in the transparent guise of a modern and very evocative orchestration.

And of course, in the vision of an Italian conductor who perfectly understands the essence of this inspiring music. Riccardo Frizza, 54 years old, is a conductor specializing in Italian opera, with a very rich discography and performances in the grand opera houses - and we listened to his productions at the Metropolitan Theater in New York on Radio România Muzical.

Having worked so much with Italian bel canto voices, Frizza understands exactly how to build a melodic line, how important sound planes are and, in general, a balance in construction. An experience that he also brings to the interpretation of symphonic music by Ottorino Respighi.

Triptych

On Radio România Muzical you listened to Ottorino Respighi's Botticelli's Triptych, performed by the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Riccardo Frizza, from an album released on February 6th.

Italian Perspectives - an album that arouses interest, not only for the special interpretation proposed on the disc, but also for the repertoire approached. Because, if we were to ask ourselves, what do we know about Italian romantic symphonism, it would certainly be difficult to give an answer, knowing that romantic Italy remains par excellence the homeland of opera. But not only that, because here, on the album presented today we have the opportunity to listen to an Italian symphony composed between 1889 and 1895, which will remind us of Schumann's music, and especially, that of Johannes Brahms. This is Symphony No. 1 by Giuseppe Martucci, an Italian composer who lived between 1856 and 1909, a contemporary of Gustav Mahler, but with a certain affinity with Johannes Brahms - he has also been called the Brahms of Italy, also referring to the fact that, like Brahms, Martucci did not write operas - a situation, let's admit, quite special for an Italian. Martucci was not only a composer, but also a pianist and conductor; the introduction of Wagner's music in Italy is also linked to him.

An extremely interesting character with music worth listening to, in which we recognize the type of German construction and Italian melody, which enjoys color, relief, precision and lyricism in the interpretation of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Frizza. Truly, a discovery.

Martucci

Performed by the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Riccardo Frizza, you listened to Symphony No. 1 by Giuseppe Martucci, a last excerpt from the Italian Perspectives album, released on February 6 by the Dutch record label Pentatone.

We've reached the end on the discographic news program on Radio România Muzical, edition that you can always relisten to on the CDs of the Year 2026 project's site romaniamuzical.ro.

Monday, February 23rd, I invite you to discover The Dream of a Child - the new album signed by Alexandra Dariescu, session accompanied by an interview with the famous pianist.

I am Cristina Comandașu and thank you for your attention. Stay on Radio România Muzical.