Pini di Roma

Pini di Roma was first performed at the Augusteo in Rome on 14 December 1924 under Bernardino Molinari, and the premiere was disrupted by a hostile faction in the hall. It is the second of the three Roman poems, written between Fontane di Roma and Feste romane, and each of its four sections is fixed to a place: the Villa Borghese gardens, the catacombs, the Janiculum, the Appian Way. For the Janiculum movement Respighi called for a gramophone recording of a nightingale to be played over the orchestra — among the earliest uses of recorded sound in a concert score.