Respighi, Ottorino

 (1879-1936)

Italian composer, born in Bologna.

He studied with the Russian composer Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov in St Petersburg and with the German composer Max Bruch in Berlin.

He also toured as a pianist and as a conductor of his own music.

Among Respighi's many works, best known are the three sets of Ancient Airs and Dances, orchestral arrangements of early Italian music (1916, 1923, 1931); the opera Belfagor (1923); the ballet La boutique fantasque (1919), staged by the Russian impresario Sergey Diaghilev; the orchestral suites Rossiniana (1925) and The Birds (1927); and the symphonic poems Fountains of Rome (1924), Pines of Rome (1924), and Roman Festivals (1929), all notable for their striking orchestral effects.