Sinfonia Drammatica
Respighi was a student of Rimsky-Korsakov (along with Stravinsky), and the parallels  between the two are curious. Both composers demonstrated their mastery of the late Romantic  orchestral vocabulary by turning to Baroque and Renaissance music and adopting a neo-classical  aesthetic. Both composers also "graduated" by writing a huge Romantic symphony. But whereas  Stravinsky's Symphony in E-flat takes Tchaikovsky and Borodin as its model, Respighi is more  indebted to the German masters, particularly Strauss. The piece is scored for a vast orchestra with a  large percussion section and organ, and it's simply a big, passionate, splashy chunk of late  Romantic schlock. In short, it's great, and this performance takes no prisoners.--David  Hurwitz