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John Wilson conducts Respighi’s 'Roman Trilogy'

BBC Proms 2026

Live at the BBC Proms: John Wilson conducts the Sinfonia of London in Verdi, Walton and Respighi's Roman Trilogy.

Live at the BBC Proms: John Wilson conducts the Sinfonia of London in Verdi, Walton and Respighi's Roman Trilogy.

Presented by Ian Skelly, live from the Royal Albert Hall, London.

Verdi: The Force of Destiny – overture
Walton: Cello Concerto

c.8.10pm
Interval: conductor Ben Gernon discusses how Rome - where Respighi lived from 1913 - became his home, professional base and creative muse.

c.8.30pm
Respighi: Roman Festivals
Respighi: Fountains of Rome
Respighi: Pines of Rome

Jonathan Aasgaard (cello)
Sinfonia of London
John Wilson (conductor)

John Wilson and his Sinfonia of London – hailed by critics as ‘peerless’ and ‘simply as good as it gets’ – are back for the first of two concerts this season. Ottorino Respighi’s love affair with Rome is captured in a trilogy of orchestral tone-poems – heat-soaked, colour-saturated works that invite the listener into the mercurial life of the Eternal City: festivals and dances, misty mornings and scented summer evenings, fanfares and solitary silence. The concert opens with Verdi’s much-loved overture to The Force of Destiny and Walton’s rhapsodic Cello Concerto, its ardent, yearning spirit perhaps a portrait of the composer’s own marriage. Norwegian cellist Jonathan Aasgaard is the soloist.

2 months left to listen

2 hours, 30 minutes

Last on

Friday 19:30
BBC Radio 3

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Music Played

  • Giuseppe Verdi

    La Forza Del Destino - Opera In 4 Acts ; Overture

    Orchestra: Sinfonia of London. Conductor: John Wilson.

  • William Walton

    Concerto

    Performer: Jonathan Aasgaard. Orchestra: Sinfonia of London. Conductor: John Wilson.

  • Ottorino Respighi

    Ancient Airs and Dances Suite no. 1; Gagliarda

    Performer: Boston Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Seiji Ozawa.
    • DG.

  • Ottorino Respighi

    Concerto gregoriano; 2nd mvt) Andante espressivo e sostenuto

    Performer: Lydia Mordkovitch. Orchestra: BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Sir Edward Downes.
    • CHANDOS.

  • Ottorino Respighi

    Trittico botticelliano; 3rd mvt.) The Birth of Venus

    Conductor: John Neschling. Orchestra: Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège.
    • Respighi: Vetrate di chiesa, Il tramonto & Trittico botticelliano.
    • BIS.
    • 103.

  • Ottorino Respighi

    Feste Romane

    Orchestra: Sinfonia of London. Conductor: John Wilson.

  • Ottorino Respighi

    Fontane Di Roma - Symphonic Poem

    Orchestra: Sinfonia of London. Conductor: John Wilson.

  • Ottorino Respighi

    Pini Di Roma - Symphonic Poem

    Orchestra: Sinfonia of London. Conductor: John Wilson.

  • Gioachino Rossini

    'Galop' from William Tell Overture

    Orchestra: Sinfonia of London. Conductor: John Wilson.

Broadcast

  • Friday 19:30
    BBC Radio 3