Respighi

Corrosive brasses and heated strings enlivened the Respighi’s first movement, and gray-toned woodwinds, transparent violins, and luxuriant cellos and basses colored the second.

At quiet dynamics throughout the evening — like the brooding opening of the catacombs section of Respighi’s “Pines of Rome” and the ambiguous haze of Tania León’s “Stride” — the sound was glistening and lucid.

Classical music has even been composed to celebrate the pines, with the most famous being the symphonic poem for orchestra that Ottorino Respighi completed in 1924.

That will include season-opening concerts featuring Respighi’s “Fountains of Rome” and “Pines of Rome” in early October.

Pacific Symphony plays favorites by Berlioz, Vivaldi and Respighi on a new “Southland Sessions.”