Born
July 9, 1879, Bologna, Italy

Died
April 18, 1936, Rome

Instrumentation
two flutes and piccolo, two oboes and English horn, two clarinets and bass clarinet, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, chimes, cymbals, glockenspiel, suspended cymbal, triangle, two harps, celesta, piano, organ (ad lib), and strings

Duration
15 minutes

Composed
1915-1916

World Premiere
March 11, 1917 with Antonio Guarnieri conducting.  The premiere was not received warmly, as Arturo Toscanini was intended to conduct.  Several months later Toscanini conducted the La Scala orchestra in Milan, including this work.  The concert would change Respighi's fortune and the status of this work.

Something interesting to listen for:
Respighi himself tells us the program he was creating with this work (see the program notes).  Each of the four chosen fountains appears at a different time of day.  The opening is very much the early morning in a pastoral setting at the Valle Giulia at dawn.  The second movement evokes the god Triton awakening his followers to a new day with horn calls.  We hear all the mythological creatures frolicking in the lovely water of the fountain.  The end of the movement evokes the sense of Triton moving on to other parts of his realm.  The third movement is a depiction of one of the best known of Rome's fountains.  The Trevi fountain at midday offers the full orchestra splashing broad streams of water over crowds of city residents coping with heat.  The final fountain is at the Villa Medici, at sunset, with a quiet and melancholic melody supported by a shimmering accompaniment.  The movements are traditionally played without a break so listen carefully.

Program notes
Written by Anna Vorhes

Ottorino Respighi is fully Italian in his output, taking the best of his inspiration from Italian scenes and the music of Italy's past.  His education included experiencing other strong musical cultures which informed his ability to compose strong works.  He began his studies in his hometown of Bologna at the Liceo Musicale where he learned to play violin and viola and started composition studies.  In the winter of 1901 he took a post as an orchestral violist in Moscow.  While there he was able to take some composition lessons with the master of orchestration, Nickolai Rimsky-Korsakov.  Respighi recognized the importance of these lessons later in his career, and we can hear the connection when we listen to his pieces depicting Rome.

From Russia, Respighi went on to study with Bruch in Berlin.  He returned to Bologna, working as a musician, and continuing to compose.  He returned to Berlin in 1908 where he presented his transcription of an opera by Monteverdi.  This received positive notice and led to his own opera.  In his search for a permanent post, he applied to become professor of composition at the Liceo Musicale de Saint Cecelia in Rome, a post he held for more than ten years.  His love affair with his adopted city led to his most well-known works, beginning with Fountains of Rome.  Pines of Rome and Roman Festival  followed, as did his transcriptions of Ancient Airs and Dances.  His awareness of his peers, from Rimsky-Korsakov to Strauss and Der Rosenkavalier and Ravel permeates his music, though his work is in no way derivative.  He offers us wonderful orchestral pictures of his world.

The fountains he chose for this work begin with a fountain on the grounds of the Vila Giulia, a place he lived early in his time in Rome.  He rented from two sisters and the scene he depicts would have been familiar to him, right down to the cows wandering around enjoying grazing.  The second fountain, Triton, was built in 1643 by Bernini on a commission by Pope Urban VII to provide access to water from the great aqueducts of Rome for the Pope's family who resided in the Palazzo Barberini.

The third fountain depicted by Respighi is the massive Trevi fountain.  Pope Urban VII also wanted Bernini to design the fountain to fit the terminal point of another of Rome's aqueducts.  Bernini started sketches, but these were abandoned after Urban VII's death.  In 1730 Pope Clement XII held a contest to design a fountain for this location.  Nicolai Salvi was awarded the prize and used some of Bernini's designs in his creation.  The work was finally completed in 1761, then years after Salvi's death.

The final fountain Respighi depicts is at the Villa de Medici.  This is a significant place in Rome for music lovers.  In 1803 Napoleon moved the French Academy of Rome, the home of the Prix de Rome awarded by the Paris Conservatoire for students to study in Rome, to the Villa de Medici.  While the Villa had been an ancient site in the Medici family, it had fallen into disrepair.  It is adjacent to the important Borghese Gardens and offered a place for French students to study the arts with Italian masters while remaining on French soil (rather like an embassy).  The Prix de Rome was finally discontinued in 1968, but the Villa de Medici remains a place for French students of the arts to study in Rome.  French is the official language of the Villa, of course.

Respighi himself offered program notes for his composition.  Here are his words, as shared by San Francisco Symphony annotator James M Keller:

Respighi on Fountains of Rome

"In this symphonic poem the composer has endeavored to give expression to the sentiments and visions suggested to him by four of Rome's fountains, contemplated at the hour when their characters are most in harmony with the surrounding landscape, or at which their beauty is most impressive to the observer.

The first part of the poem, inspired by the fountain of Valle Giulia, depicts a pastoral landscape: droves of cattle pass and disappear in the fresh, damp mists of the Roman dawn.

A sudden loud and insistent blast of horns above the trills of the whole orchestra introduces the second part, "The Triton Fountain." It is like a joyous call, summoning troops of naiads and tritons, who come running up, pursuing each other and mingling in a frenzied dance between the jets of water.

Next there appears a solemn theme borne on the undulations of the orchestra.  It is the fountain of Trevi at mid-day.  The solemn theme, passing from the woodwind to the brass instruments, assumes a triumphal character.  Trumpets peal: Across the radiant surface of the water there passes Neptune's chariot drawn by seahorses and followed by a train of sirens and tritons.  The procession vanishes while faint trumpet blasts resound in the distance.

The fourth part, the Fountain at the Villa Medici, is announced by a sad theme which rises above the subdued warbling.  It is the nostalgic hour of sunset.  The air is full of the sound of tolling bells, the twittering of birds, the rustling of leaves.  Then all dies peacefully into the silence of the night." - Ottorino Respighi