Gabrielle Haigh Songs of Martucci, Elsa Sangiacomo Respighi, Ottorino Respighi, Rieti And Rimsky Korsakov (2022)

This album, Il Circolo Respighi, was inspired by my discovery that Ottorino Respighi’s wife, Elsa (née Olivieri-Sangiacomo), was also his pupil and a talented composer herself. This revelation led to the idea of performing a recital featuring art songs composed by Respighi’s most influential teachers, Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Giuseppe Martucci, by his students Vittorio Rieti and Elsa Respighi, and of course several of his own. In reflecting on the years 2020 and 2021, a period of disease, political upheaval and social change, it is interesting to note that the composers on this disc must have felt similar if not greater levels of uncertainty and angst during the tumultuous times in which they lived. This may be the reason so many of the songs here are focused on other times and places, real or imagined ― when times are hard, escapism is powerful.