If you’re looking for great SACD multi-channel sonics in this music, then this release is the way to go. Given the brilliance of Respighi’s scoring, it’s remarkable just how difficult it has been for record labels to capture this music effectively, particularly at the big climaxes. Here, finally, is a production that really does offer a close approximation of the sound of this music live, with natural perspectives, impressive dynamic range, rich bass, and plenty of presence. It’s the best since Reiner’s legendary RCA Living Stereo production.
Happily, the performances have plenty of musical interest as well. John Neschling doesn’t just beat time and stay out of the way. He has ideas, and they work. Consider his flexibility of tempo in the second movement of Feste Romane. This tone poem usually gets short shrift compared to the others–it’s supposed to be both the noisiest and least musically interesting, but not here. Neschling finds countless details of scoring that other versions neglect, and he conducts with love. He brings an extra measure of grandeur to the Trevi fountain climax of Fountains of Rome, and the final march in Pines is as spectacular as anyone could ask.
Through it all the São Paulo Symphony plays magnificently, without perhaps the hair-trigger precision of Muti/Philadelphia, but with just as much passion and panache. It’s so gratifying to hear a recording of this music that really does it justice. Respighi isn’t junk, and there’s no excuse for playing him that way. This release belongs right up there with Toscanini, Muti, Bernstein (Pines and Festivals), Reiner, and Kempe (the latter two in Pines and Fountains), among the great versions of this music on disc.
