Ouverture Carnevalesca

The Ouverture Carnevalesca was performed in Bologna on April 19th of the same year (1913) as part of a ten-city tour. The piece was written shortly before the Sinfonia drammatica (1914) and Respighi's first major success, Fontane di Roma (1915-16.) The Ouverture Carnevalesca was not published before Respighi's death in 1936. Perhaps Respighi saw the work as the termination of his early period and chose not to publish it. Perhaps the move to Rome and the tour simply pushed the piece aside. The unpublished manuscript, along with other manuscripts and documents, was donated by Respighi's widow, Elsa, to the biblioteca della musica of the Conservatorio G. B. Martini in Bologna before her death in 1996.