Incredible but true: this constitutes the first English-language biography of its subject, save for an abridged 1962 translation of a 1954 memorial volume by Respighi’s widow Elsa. Ours not to reason why only now, 83 years after the composer’s death at 56 from endocarditis, has such a biography arrived. Ours, rather, to be grateful for its arrival, and to have our comprehension of the master’s career lastingly enriched.

“Career,” be it noted, not “psyche” or “inner man.” The creator of Ancient Airs and Dances and the Roman Trilogy eludes pop-psychologists and suchlike reductionists. To the limited extent that Respighi’s motivations emerge from this narrative, he seems to have been disappointingly pleasant to know: a faithful husband, a civil colleague (albeit his academic employers deplored his enthusiasm for foreign travel), a devoted pedagogue, a hard worker (who wrestled with bouts of depression), and a loyal Catholic believer. Narcissists and Promethean sleazebuckets generate energised prose much more readily. Virtue-signallers will bemoan Respighi’s eagerness to seek Mussolini’s favours; but then, the composer died too soon to have predicted the Rome-Berlin axis’s disastrous outcome.

Echoing Respighi’s own conscientiousness, Michael Webb has corrected various mis-statements of Elsa’s (probably...