ABOUT THE SEASON
The Third Season of the Chamber Orchestra of New York has been created in collaboration with Elsa and Gloria Pizzoli (the great nieces and family heirs of Ottorino Respighi) and Potito Pedarra (the Respighi archive curator).
After meetings in 2007, Mr. Pedarra entrusted Maestro Di Vittorio with copies of unpublished Respighi manuscripts, in anticipation of their possible public premieres.
During this time, Maestro Di Vittorio shared with Mr. Pedarra the idea of composing an Overture in homage to Respighi, and as a thank you to the Respighi heirs for their permission for the Chamber Orchestra to honor the composer’s name and to promote his unpublished music.
After acknowledging Di Vittorio’s inherent musical connection with Respighi, Mr. Pedarra (in agreement with the Pizzolis) invited the Maestro to complete Respighi’s first (unfinished) Concerto per Violino*.
Initial plans for the homage Overture evolved from a reworking of Respighi’s transcriptions of Rossini’s music (Rossiniana Suite and La Boutique Fantasque) to realizing a musical connection with Di Vittorio’s own composition Sinfonia No. 2**. Maestro Di Vittorio observed: “I noticed a strong resemblance between my nursery rhyme motif in the final movement of Sinfonia No. 2 and what I consider Respighi’s children’s theme at the beginning of Pines of Rome. If I could achieve a connection in the Overture, both works could be performed in the same program.” The Maestro envisioned a performance of the Overture alongside Sinfonia No. 2, after receiving an invitation to perform his revised Sinfonia in Palermo.
As the homage, now titled Overtura Respighiana*, developed, Mr. Pedarra grew more convinced that a season combining the music of Respighi and his related works on Rossini, alongside Di Vittorio’s work on Respighi could realize “…a real fusion between the music of Respighi and our maestro (Di Vittorio).”
Di Vittorio’s Overture and Respighi’s Violin Concerto have clear musical links that connect them to each other as well as to Respighi’s famous work, Pines of Rome. Likewise there is an obvious symbiosis between Di Vittorio’s Overtura Respighiana and Sinfonia No. 2.
All these works (including Rossiniana Suite) and two Respighi rarities - the Aria* and the Suite for strings* – are now part of the Third Season of the Chamber Orchestra to be recorded on the Naxos label, featuring Bologna native and violinist Laura Marzadori in Respighi’s Concerto per Violino.
At the Season opening winter concert “Alla Respighiana”, Maestro Di Vittorio and the Chamber Orchestra will announce The Respighi Prize competition for young composers and soloists, with a pre-concert presentation honoring the Respighi heirs and archive affiliates at the Italian Cultural Institute.
We will conclude our Season with a spring concert "Italian Heartstrings", including such works as Scarlatti’s Il Giardino di Rose (in commemoration of the Scarlatti anniversary) and Puccini’s Crisantemi for strings (from the opera Manon Lescaut).
A very exciting season indeed!
* World Premiere
** U.S. Premiere
Two World Premieres & Three U.S. Premieres!
"...a real fusion between the music of Respighi
and our maestro (Di Vittorio)"
- Potito Pedarra, Respighi family archive curator
