This new recording features star conductor Sakari Oramo and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra with two Italian masterpieces by the late-Romantic composer Ottorino Respighi (1879–1936).

The symphonic poem Fontane di Roma remains one of Respighi’s most popular works and forms part of his Roman Trilogy. Each movement depicts one of Rome’s fountains during different periods of the day and night, while the work as a whole showcases the centuries-old Italian marriage of culture, art, and worldly pleasure.

The discovery piece on this disc, the monumental Concerto ‘in the Mixolydian mode’, deserves more widespread introduction into the standard repertoire; its title refers to the work’s majestic main theme that is derived from medieval plainchant.

This work’s champion, star pianist Olli Mustonen, has been hailed by The Sunday Times as, “a living dream of pianism, having broken through an expressive barrier that other players do not know exists.”