Tag: Adagio con variazioni

One of the unfortunate things about not having a live air shift anymore is that I no longer get a chance to play a lot of those wonderful, shorter pieces I used to work into my shows. On the birthday of Ottorino Respighi, I’m reminded of the composer’s “Adagio con variazioni” (“Adagio with Variations”), a lovely work for cello and orchestra that’s worlds away from the rafter-rattling tone poems that comprise his famous “Roman Trilogy.” I haven’t heard this since the last time I played it on the radio, which would have been before the pandemic. How many equally lovely pieces have fallen through the cracks now that I’m no longer sitting at the control board? At home, I don’t often go to my personal collection to pull out short pieces I once played fairly regularly, pieces like Oskar Nedbal’s “Valse triste” or Armstong Gibbs’ “Dusk.” No one in management considers how much the landscape will change once someone is shown the door and takes his record collection with him. Which is why you will no longer hear John Foulds’ “Keltic Lament” or Alexander Glazunov’s “Idyll” for horn and strings. Be that as it may, I hope you will take a few minutes to enjoy some Respighi you won’t often encounter.