Pini di Roma

Respighi’s tone poem Pini di Roma (Pines of Rome) is a colourful evocation of the atmosphere and sounds of the Italian capital. The work was completed in 1924, the second of Respighi’s Roman Trilogy, which also includes Fontane di Roma (Fountains of Rome) and Feste Romane (Roman Festivals). Respighi spoke of how his imagination had been captured by the “umbrella-like pines that appear in every part of the horizon”. The four movements, played without breaks, depict pine trees in four famous locations. In “I Pini di Villa Borghese”, children are playing in the landscape garden of the Villa Borghese, and the music is a flurry of high woodwinds and brass. The mood changes suddenly with “Pini presso una Catacomba”. We are now at a solitary chapel near ancient burial caves. The sound of mournful singing gradually rises in the brass, then gently floats away. In the third movement, “I Pini del Gianicolo”, the Janiculum Hill is depicted at night with a plaintive clarinet invoking stillness, joined at the end by a recording of a nightingale. The work ends in spectacular style, with “I Pini della Via Appia”. Respighi transports us to the Appian Way, one of the key military roads of the Roman Empire. He imagines a ghostly Roman legion appearing out of the dawn mists. A huge brass section evokes the steadily approaching sound of marching feet, the soldiers arriving in triumph with the newly rising sun at their backs.