PSO April 26, 2025 Concert "Respighi Festival"

Contact: Mark Miller (908-561-5140)

Website: www.plainfieldsymphony.org

Email:info@plainfieldsymphony.org

The Plainfield Symphony’s April 26, 2025, 7 PM concert will immerse the audience in three works by one of the leading Italian composers of the early 20th century, Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936). Maestro Charles Prince will lead this diverse presentation that showcases the many sides to Respighi’s compositional style and will feature PSO violinist Michael Avagliano.

His Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No.1, composed in 1917, is the first of a set of three orchestral suites, freely transcribed from Renaissance lute pieces by Simone Molinaro, Vincenzo Galilei (father of famous astronomer Galileo), and additional anonymous composers. Respighi uses his remarkable skill at orchestration to transform this 16th century music into a modern style. In this suite, he creates an intimate, chamber-music like atmosphere.

Concerto Gregoriano for violin and orchestra (1921) is a little known three-movement work inspired by the history and music of early Christianity. It is an elegiac composition built on themes from Gregorian chant. What interested Respighi in Gregorian music was more the “thematic material” such as modal keys and quotes rather than religious expression. This concerto deserves to stand alongside the well-known works for solo violin and orchestra.

Our soloist, Michael Avagliano has created a multifaceted career as conductor, performer, and educator. He serves as music director of the August Symphony, Summit Symphony, and Somerset Symphony, and has become as known for his exceptional musicianship as for his success in engaging and expanding the audiences of the organizations under his leadership. He joined the Allentown Symphony this season as Assistant Conductor and will make his debut with that orchestra in July 2025.

As an active violinist and violist, Mr. Avagliano has performed with the New Jersey Symphony, the Singapore Symphony, and the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra.  He has appeared as soloist regularly in the region. As a member of the critically acclaimed Madison String Quartet, Mr. Avagliano has performed on chamber series throughout the United States and will appear with the quartet in Vienna at the invitation of the Arnold Schoenberg Center in May.

Respighi had a love affair with Rome. His Roman Trilogy comprises three tone-poems which celebrate the city's architectural marvels, its festivals, pines and fountains. Pines of Rome (1924) is the second of three tone poems. The four-movement work depicts pine trees in four locations throughout Rome at varying times of day and in various historical periods. The lively first movement begins at the Villa Borghese, a palace built in the seventeenth century complete with charming pleasure gardens. The second movement, somber and mysterious, depicts early underground Christian burial chambers. Respighi then depicts the Janiculum, one of the Seven Hills of Rome, with serene, melodic strings and a soaring clarinet solo. The final movement recalls the ancient glories of the Appian Way, an important early Roman road, with an ever-building surge of sound that concludes in a blast of triumphant brass and percussion. Of the three tone poems, Pines is the most frequently performed work.