Римские празднества: Симфоническая поэма Отторино Респиги

Symphonic poem by Ottorino Respighi

Roman Festivals (Italian: Feste Romane), P 157 is a tone poem in four movements for orchestra completed in 1928 by the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi. It is the last of his three tone poems about Rome, following Fountains of Rome (1916) and Pines of Rome (1924), which he referred to as a triptych. Each movement depicts a scene of celebration in ancient and contemporary Rome, specifically gladiators battling to the death, the Christian Jubilee, a harvest and hunt festival, and a festival in the Piazza Navona. Musically, the piece is the longest and most demanding of Respighi's Roman trilogy. The premiere was held on 21 February 1929 at Carnegie Hall in New York City, with Arturo Toscanini conducting the New York Philharmonic. The piece was published by Casa Ricordi in the same year.

Having completed the work, Respighi felt that he had incorporated the "maximum of orchestral sonority and colour" from the orchestra and could no longer write such large scale pieces. It was at this time he started to favour compositions for smaller ensembles. Although Roman Festivals is generally considered as less successful than its two predecessors, conductor and Respighi interpreter Yan Pascal Tortelier points to the "really inspired mix of sophisticated orchestration, chromaticism, harmony and powerful driving rhythms" used in the piece, and judges "La Befana" as "exuberant, almost orgiastic" and "much more varied and satisfying musically" than the similarly eruptive final movement of Pines of Rome. "Circus Games" depicts the ancient contests in which gladiators battled to the death, with the sound of trumpet fanfares. Strings and woodwinds suggest the plainchant of the first Christian martyrs which are heard against the snarls of the beasts against which they are pitted. The movement ends with violent orchestral chords, complete with organ pedal, as the martyrs succumb. "The Jubilee" portrays the every fiftieth year festival in the Papal tradition (see Christian Jubilee). Respighi quotes the German Easter hymn, "Christ ist erstanden". Pilgrims approaching Rome catch a breath taking view from Mt. Mario, as church bells ring in the background. "The October Harvest" represents the harvest and hunt festival in Rome. The French horn solo celebrates the harvest as bells and a mandolin portray love serenades. "The Epiphany" takes place in the Piazza Navona. Trumpets sound again and create a festive clamour of Roman songs and dances, including a barrel organ and a drunken reveler depicted by a solo tenor trombone.

This work was transcribed (in the original key) for the United States Marine Band by Don Patterson in 2010. This transcription was recorded on the CD Feste, conducted by Michael J. Colburn.

The movement "Circenses" was played on BBC Radio 4 Educational Radio series in the 1980s, Roman Britain during an introduction. The movement "Circenses" was used in the 1947 American film Fireworks. The movement "Circenses" appeared in Sydney New Year's Eve in 2003/2004.