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The Concerto all’antica is an early, beautifully poetic work that again draws on ancient styles, for Solo Violin and Orchestra.

An early violin concerto “in an ancient style” originally attributed to an anonymous composer was, Respighi admitted, composed principally as a joke at the expense of German critics. Respighi was usually dismissive of his earlier scores, but in this instance he seems to have proposed publication as late as 1923 – presumably at the period when neo-classicism was beginning to become the idiom of modern choice for composers throughout Europe. Not that the Concerto all’antica is in any way a really neo-classical work. The principal objective of the movement in the 1920s was to view the style of the eighteenth century through the prism of twentieth century experience; but in 1908 Respighi was content to imitate his baroque models in a manner that borders closely on pastiche, and certainly without the ironic overtones of his later neo-classical contemporaries such as Prokofiev or Stravinsky.

The first movement of the concerto, indeed, could have fallen straight out of a Vivaldi manuscript without turning very much of a hair at all. But in the second movement Respighi, clearly falling under the enchantment of the slow movement of Bach’s Double Concerto, moves into decidedly more romantic territory with an extended cantilena for his soloist which has what the booklet notes here accurately describe as “poetical introspection”. And the third movement is equally adventurous, as the expected rondo structure suddenly expands to include a minuet section with a decided tilt towards the music of the later classical era rather than exclusively baroque style.