Respighi wrote the music for the ballet La Boutique fantasque (The Magic Toyshop) to a commission from the great ballet impresario Diaghilev. He based the music on some 200 of Rossini’s miniatures. Rossini’s whimsical titles such as Gherkins and Abortive Polka, and the naïve plot of La Boutique fantasque would have appealed to Respighi’s essentially child-like nature. He played a lot of Ravel and Ravel’s musical idiom is blended together with Russian influences (such as that of his tutor, Rimsky-Korsakov) and snatches of Neapolitan folk tunes in his score. All elements of Respighi’s genius are in these works – the glittering orchestration and the subtle changes of tempo, mood and key.

It is something of a paradox that a composer as quintessentially Italian as Respighi should be so drawn to the complex contrapuntal brilliance of Bach; it is said he played Bach’s music almost every day. He arranged a number of Bach’s works, perhaps the best-known of which is his powerful orchestral interpretation of Bach’s Passacaglia in C minor. His orchestral realisation of Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in D major showcases his orchestral virtuosity, with the full registration of the organ gloriously conveyed.

The success of La Boutique fantasque inspired further ballet pastiches in which Respighi draws on the compositions and popular folklore of other countries, in the case of La pentola magica (The Magic Pot), that of Russia. It is in the style of lesser-known Russian composers, and contains original compositions by Respighi, based on popular Russian themes. He really only composed the score for fun and the ballet scenario does not seem to have survived.