“With these ‘Respighi Songs’, the song duo Bostridge & Giorgini have succeeded in creating an album that is well worth listening to, and which may serve as an inspiration for many singers for possible recitals.”
After their acclaimed recording of Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin, Ian Bostridge and Saskia Giorgini present a programme of rarely-recorded songs by Ottorino Respighi. This selection of songs demonstrates Respighi’s stylistic versatility and broad literary inspiration, from settings of Ada Negri’s compact verses to florid, Symbolist d’Annunzio poems as well as folk melodies, including Scottish songs. Respighi’s Liriche unveils a fascinating, little-known Italian branch of musical Impressionism. What binds them together is a longing for a past still so close, but at the same time inevitably gone.
“The tenor lets the sung images and moods arise effortlessly in front of the inner eye, there is a scent from his singing, floating colors are dabbed on and phrases are delicately indicated, all in the sense of an interpenetration of music and word.”
“And so you float away into symbolic worlds, listen to the impressionistic echo of Claude Debussy and let yourself be captivated by the magical sound of Saskia Giorgini.”
Benjamin Künzel
Photo by Julia Wesely
