The overture to La Cenerentola, a work first performed in 1817, comes from Gioachino Rossini’s opera La gazzetta, composed a year earlier and rarely performed today. This is eloquent proof of the expressive universality of the buffo style, which Rossini mastered so perfectly. Using simple and very clear technical means, he achieves an effect of charm, freshness and, of course, humour, which in this case is certainly not bawdy, but delicate and somewhat lyrical.

Béla Bartók’s Cantata profana, astonishing in terms of both music and plot, with an extensive cast, dates from 1930. The text of the work (in Hungarian) was based on two Romanian folk ballads describing the story of a father and his nine sons transformed into deer. Its content, extremely poignant and symbolic in its mystery, refers to the archetypal sources of folk culture, which Bartók interpreted so accurately. Equally astonishing is the complex musical structure of the work, dense in texture and intense in expression.

Ottorino Respighi, who wrote numerous stage works, cantatas, songs, chamber pieces and concertos, is perhaps best known today as the first composer to successfully transfer the tradition of postromantic symphonism to Italy. His three symphonic poems from 1916–1928, a triptych inspired by images of the Eternal City (Fontane di Roma, Pini di Roma, Feste Romane), are perhaps Respighi’s most important achievements – works that are highly regarded and popular, extremely colourful and evocative, accompanied by programmatic descriptions in which the composer presents the scenery of the musically illustrated places in the context of historical and mythological events.

Robert Losiak