This is a recording of a live concert in Rome in November 1998. It has all the polish of a studied studio project but with the added excitement and spontaneity. Mercifully it is free of audience participation. The programme includes many favourites as well as more unfamiliar items as the following list of films covered shows:- Cinema Paradiso Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion A Pure Formality Bugsy H2S The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Once upon a Time in the West Fistful of Dynamite Love Circle Pereira Declares Casualties of War Burn The Mission Morricone gives us delightful arrangements of his well-loved themes that actually add to their enjoyment and never leave one feeling the slightest bit disappointed that cherished music has been mutilated. The concert opens with the Theme and Love theme from Cinema Paradiso lovingly wrapped in a dreamy haze of nostalgia. The less well-known music for Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion is quirky fun with squeaky comic bumblings over a pounding piano ostinato. Angelo Brandouri sings his sad, vulnerable 'Ricordare' from A Pure Formality while the music for Bugsy has its sentimentality tempered by despairing discords. The music for H2S is a delicious scherzo that scintillates with its cheerful triangle and woodwind figures yet it also has classical refinement. For the Titles music of The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Morricone piles engaging quirkiness onto already existing oddities. From Once Upon a Time in the West and Fistful of Dynamite we have more tender moments expressed by vocalist Gemma Bertagnolli with the latter film music also has more tense orchestral undertows. For 'The Ecstasy of Gold' from The Good Bad and the Ugly, Bertagnolli, with choir, stretches her voice powerfully skywards to revel majestically in the allure of gold. 'Love Circle' is something of a bleak romantic passacaglia. 'A Brisa Do Coração', from the film Pereira Declares is another intriguing number with darting piccolo figures amidst the other quirky but vibrant orchestrations, and the Latin rhythms and vibrant singing from the husky-voiced and very expressive Dulce Pontes. I would buy this CD for this track alone. Yet another arresting track is The Working Class Goes to Paradise. It opens with pounding percussion and light rapid drumming effects that suggest airplane propeller blades or machine gun shots and proceeds to comic, almost burlesque material threatened by cold impersonal and brutal mechanistic material. A solo violin adds poignancy. I could well imagine this music fitting in the score for Cradle Will Rock also reviewed on this site this month. Casualties of War has a haunting poignancy that yields to a hymn-like supplications from the choir. An organ solo introduces music that one associates with the North American Indians in another imposing choral and orchestral selection, 'Abolição' from Burn that ends in more conventional ecclesiastical mode despite the persistent ethnic drums. The concert concludes with the deeply affecting 'Gabriel's Oboe' and 'On Earth as it is in Heaven' from The Mission. Here as in all the other tracks, the celebrated Orchestra and Chorus of the Accademia Nazionalle di Santa Cecilia play and sing their hearts out for Morricone. A treat not to be missed Reviewer Ian Lace	Reviewer Ian Lace Reviews from previous months Reviews carry sales links but you can also purchase from:
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