Respighi: Pini di Roma - III. "I pini del Gianicolo" (Pines of the Janiculum)

so the first thing you might be thinking after actually reading the title is, what is the gianicolo?
the janiculum is a hill in western rome. it happens to be home to some of the most ancient temples and monuments in rome, one of which (the temple to the god janus) is claimed by wiki to be the site and setting of this movement. right now i am too annoyed at the fact that this fact is neither cited nor substantiated on wiki's site and yet every info site on the internet seemingly has just taken to mirroring wiki's entry that i am not really going to give this notion the time of day. i think this movement is about said hill, the sense of isolation and elevation one might have standing atop it, and the proximity to nature that it provides (it is, or apparently was, covered at one time almost completely in pines).

pines of rome is a four movement suite or orchestral tone poem, which became respighi's genre of choice after his more or less unsuccessful run at opera (the great italian tradition...) the first of his most famous works (set of three suites known as the roman trilogy) was fountains of rome, written in 1916. pines of rome (or just "pines" as orchestra players usually call it) was composed in 1924. the third, roman festivals, is actually played quite rarely. it was written in 1926.

before we go any further, here are two great recordings of this particular movement, sifted out of the mass of university orchestra and high school band ensembles that are on youtube.

Tosca and NBC. before i saw this video i had actually never seen toscanini conduct. this recording is very... straight. no nonsense, nothing fluffy. nice sound though. check out the cello soli at 2:15.

this is a much more "typical" recording and achieves the dreaminess that i think attracts a lot of people to respighi's music. i'm posting it for comparison's sake and also because it's ridiculous having to wade through all the band performances on youtube to find an actual well done recording of this piece that even a recording by this relatively unknown orchestra is definitely in the top echelon... and it's pretty good. some nice wind solos.
you'll notice right away that the most characteristic writing of this movement (and maybe of the entire suite) is the solo wind writing - the long-winded opening clarinet solo is famously difficult to pull off. the movement is lush and tranquil. the obligatory program note is just respighi's accompanying description -

A quiver runs through the air: the pine trees of the Janiculum stand distinctly outlined in the clear light of a full moon. A nightingale is singing.

the string writing evokes something of debussy - washes of colors and blobby chords that sort of metamorphose into other key areas by sliding around chromatically. the main theme is super chromatic and always seems to want to rise up but never quite come into the sun.
and of course there's the famous nightingale. maybe the first ever recorded instance of using pre-recorded sounds in a piece. done tastefully and to great effect.
ok, off to new york.