Italian composer Ottorino Respighi wrote pieces that were nationalistic and traditional. The compositions on this records are from 1917, 1923 and 1931. This is a time of great ethical turmoil, and one cannot evade the question as to the relationship with that other Italian nationalistic and traditional symbol: Mussolini. How were the two related?
I suppose there are many books written about this very subject. Personally I think these are developments that originate from similar causes. Whatever drove Mussolini to create a vile political power, it also created beauty like in Respighi’s works. There were more composers that followed similar roads, and all have been neglected since the war. Think of Malipiero, Pizzetti, and Mascagni. The same happened in Germany by the way, think of Orff.
Respighi died when he was 56, but his wife survived him by decades. She live to be over a hundred years, and never tired of fighting for her long deceased husband. She might be the reason why we still listen to the Pines of Rome, the Fountains of Rome, and this.