Ottorino Respighi - (1/2) Notte tropicale. Brazilian Impressions No. 1 (1928)

Ottorino Respighi (9 July 1879 – 18 April 1936) was an Italian composer and musicologist.

Please support my channel:
https://ko-fi.com/bartjebartmans

Impressione brasiliane (Brazilian Impressions), for orchestra, P. 153 (1928)

1. Notte tropicale

Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jesús López-Cobos

Description by Uncle Dave Lewis [-]
Composer Ottorino Respighi made his first trip to Brazil in May 1927, in the company of his wife Elsa. Engaged to lead a concert series of his own music in Rio de Janeiro, Respighi struggled to bring to terms an orchestra largely schooled in opera and zarzuela accompaniment and thus unused to purely instrumental performance. To this end Respighi acquitted himself, and the concert series was a success. Before his return to Europe, Respighi announced to the Brazilian press that he'd been absorbing local music and custom during his stay and would return the following year with a five-part orchestral suite based on his experiences. Respighi did, in fact, return to Rio de Janeiro in June 1928, but more pressing matters had weighed upon him in the interim, and the promised five-movement suite was presented only as a three-movement work entitled Brazilian Impressions. It nonetheless was warmly received; the result being that Respighi subsequently dropped the plan to add the two additional movements.

"Tropical Night," the first movement, is a boldly colored and highly impressionistic piece which is paced very slowly and is decorated with light sprays of harp and distantly intoned Brazilian folk tunes. A bit more on edge is the second movement, "Butantan" (In a Snake Garden Near São Paulo) which is set in a snake farm visited by the Respighis that was maintained by the Butantan Reptile Institute. Thousands of snakes were being bred for the collection of medicinal venom; judging from the tense atmosphere of the piece, one may deduce that the composer was somewhat unnerved by this experience. Rattling tambourines and slithering clarinets (marked "strisciante") represent the massive pits of reptiles; towards the end a snaky "Dies Irae" may be heard in the strings, perhaps signifying a great need to take leave of this scene. The concluding "Canzone e danza" is based on folk dances heard at Carnival. Compared to the fireworks Respighi displays in conclusions such as that of The Pines of Rome, "Canzone e danza" is restrained, rather short and surprisingly low-key. Brazilian Impressions as a whole has something of a travelogue quality, suggesting that if Respighi did absorb Brazilian music and culture, he did not do so very deeply, or not at least with the all-embracing enthusiasm of French composer Darius Milhaud. However the Brazilian Impressions is highly attractive music of excellent quality, makes brilliant use of orchestral color and provides a pleasant, exotic diversion of about 20 minutes' duration.

Publisher info:
Milan: G. Ricordi, 1931. Plate P.R. 478.
Copyright:
Public Domain - Non-PD US