Photo, BBC/Mark Allan
REVIEWED FROM LIVE RELAY ON BBC RADIO 3
Friday, August 7, 2026
Royal Albert Hall, London
Respighi’s Church Windows (1925-26, premiered the following year in Boston conducted by Koussevitzky) may not have visited the Proms before (despite co-founder Henry Wood leading its UK debut in 1928), albeit the bigger picture is it has been heard in London since then if occasionally, the most-recent appearance probably being in June 2022, the LSO and Antonio Pappano.
Respighi’s four stained-glass ‘Impressions’ are as follows:
I. La fuga in Egitto (The Flight into Egypt)
II. San Michele Arcangelo (Saint Michael the Archangel)
III. Il Mattutino di Santa Chiara (The Matins of Santa Chiara)
IV. San Gregorio Magno (Saint Gregory the Great)
This descriptive Technicolor score suits Nil Venditti well, based on her tendency, I have found, to overblow fortissimos and not be afraid of being thought bombastic. There were undoubted excitements, numerous beauties, and cinematic projections; a roulading clarinet solo that would fit into Scheherazade – reminding that Respighi studied with Rimsky – and also that Feste Romane and Pini da Roma were from the same Respighian pen, Windows (incorporating Gregorian chant) composed between these two-thirds of his Roman Trilogy. In passing, one wondered if a dramatic gong-stroke arrived a split-second late, and that the organ may have been too much of a sonic surprise while setting the pulse racing. Also, there were a few tempos that seemed at-odds with the picturesque qualities to be found in the music. Nevertheless the rarity of Church Windows gave this breezy twenty-five-minute account an opportunity to reassess it, and find favourably (also see St. Louis below).
Having completed thirty-nine operas, culminating with William Tell, set to a French libretto, Rossini having skipped from Italy to France where he set the in-Latin Stabat mater, “a 13th-century Christian hymn to the Virgin Mary that portrays her suffering as mother during the crucifixion of her son Jesus Christ”. Rossini’s operatic experience and his wit (by nature he was gregarious, and he knew were the finest Parisian restaurants were) makes for a tuneful and arresting setting in ten movements:
- Stabat Mater dolorosa (verse 1) – Chorus and all four soloists
- Cujus animam (verses 2–4) – Tenor
- Quis est homo (verses 5–6) – Soprano and mezzo-soprano
- Pro peccatis (verses 7–8) – Bass
- Eja, Mater (verses 9–10) – Bass recitative and chorus
- Sancta Mater (verses 11–15) – All four soloists
- Fac ut portem (verses 16–17) – Mezzo-soprano
- Inflammatus (verses 18–19) – Soprano and chorus
- Quando corpus morietur (verse 20) – Chorus and all four soloists
- In sempiterna saecula. Amen (not part of the standard text) – Chorus
Apart from not giving Dave Monaco enough room to delight in the ‘Cujus animam’ – musically tilted more to the secular salon than a sacred venue – Venditti shaped a relished reading that arrived vividly to the listener, avoiding stodge and sanctimoniousness, with fine solo and choral singing (Epiphoni Consort joining the BBCSC), and the BBC Symphony Orchestra was not an onlooker, certainly not the timpanist. The closing modulations of “Amen”, driven through at a Formula 1 tempo, were electrifying. Rossini’s brand of religiosity here enjoyed an ‘everybody welcome whatever you believe in’ embrace.
Federica Lombardi (soprano)
Chiara Amarù (mezzo-soprano)
Dave Monaco (tenor)
Nicola Ulivieri (bass)
Epiphoni Consort
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002zcwr
From the Rausing Circle, the balance was all wrong when the soloists sang. The orchestra was too loud and heavy handed, especially in Cujus Animan.
The last chorus may have been exhilarating but was too fast to appreciate the brilliance of the part-writing.
On the plus side, the unaccompanied choral passages were superb
The enthusiasm which erupted at the end of “Church Windows” was very gratifying, as the work can’t have been all that familiar to the Prommers, not least because it had never been heard at the Proms before, nor that often in concerts generally, or indeed on the radio. The enthusiasm displayed last night matched that accorded to the “Roman Trilogy” so brilliantly performed by John Wilson’s Sinfonia of London the other day. All of which makes me hope that the Proms organisers will follow up with a few more Respighi Proms Premieres in their up-coming seasons.
Respighi wasn’t always a top-notch composer but I can think of several works which await their long overdue Proms Premieres. For example, “Brazilian Impressions” is a 20-minute three-movement work inspired by a visit he’d made to Brazil in 1927. It consists of an atmospheric “Tropical Night” piece followed by some creepy memories of a visit to a snake-garden near Sao Paulo. Respighi graphically depicts these creatures slithering around and, as an added effect, their angry hissing is reproduced by a tambourine played with side-drum sticks! Happily, the work ends samba-style with “Canzone e Danza.”
The 15-minute “Ballad of the Gnomes” is also well worth a Proms premiere. It was inspired by a poem in which two female gnomes drag a tiny male among their number to what is described as “a single marriage bed” and subject him to unspeakable and happily unspecified horrors. The end results in their “lifeless trophy” being hurled from a cliff-top into the sea. It reminded one record critic of Bernard Herrmann’s music for “Psycho” so you get the picture.
Another work worth considering for the Proms is “Metamorphoseon” – a 25-minute Theme and Variations composition which, like “Church Windows” and the Roman Trilogy, has a big organ part in the finale. LIke those others, it’s absolutely tailor-made for the Royal Albert Hall.
There are several other works which could also make their Proms debuts, including the Adagio with Variations for Cello and Orchestra. I don’t know if this is already in Sheku Kanneh-Mason’s repertoire but I’m sure a Proms first performance by him would be rapturously received. At any rate, those are my Respighi suggestions, so we look forward to future prospectusus with fingers crossed!
Rather different but sheer delight is his Rossini-based ballet LA BOUTIQUE FANTASTIQUE . A very long time ago, but still in my memory, David Munrow explored the music on PIED PIPER…how lucky were those of my (and Colin’s) generation to have such things on radio when we were young.