Ennio Morricone conducts: Royal Albert Hall 10/04/10

[Maurice]

Times 'Playlist' magazine:



Ennio Morricone is gearing up to conduct a programme of his film scores at the Albert Hall, on April 10, a rare and special event.



The 81-year-old dapper don of soundtracks may be one of the last of his generation, but his influence continues to cross musical genres and generations.



What other Oscar-winning composer has been sampled by Jay-Z, covered by Bruce Springsteen, recycled by Quentin Tarantino and hired as a string arranger by Morrissey?



The prolific Morricone musical credits include about 500 scores for film and television and more than 120 unrelated orchestral pieces, symphonies and even pop songs. He has insisted on arranging and conducting his own work, citing Hitchcock's favourite musical collaborator, Bernard Herrmann, as inspiration.



"The composer who does not actually write his own score from beginning to end is somebody who I don't consider a composer," he tells me.



Outside his native Italy most film fans became aware of Morricone through the dramatic music he composed for his former schoolfriend Sergio Leone, beginning with A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS in 1964. Inevitably, a suite of Leone scores will be central to his Albert Hall concert.



Morricone prefers to call Leone's pulp classics "Italian westerns" and strongly dislikes the "spaghetti" nickname: "It is impossible to compare something that belongs to art with something you eat."



www.royalalberthall.com

[jimw1]

His score for "The Mission" was absolutely brilliant.....

one of my favourite Pieces of Music...............

[lionheart]

Ennio Morricone Royal Albert Hall Tickets on eBay (end time 07-Apr-10 22:20:01 BST)



very tempting

[Maurice]

Daily Telegraph review

by Bernadette McNulty:



Alfred Hitchcock gave the Royal Albert Hall and his favourite, composer, Bernard Herrmann, starring roles in the 1956 film THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, when at the climax of the cantata, an assassin misfires and falls from one of the balconies.



There was no such bloodshed in the venue tonight, packed to the rafters with a crowd of all ages, but there was a constantly shifting stream of moods, emotions and landscapes orchestrated by the man who is arguably music fans' favourite film composer of the past 50 years.



Ennio Morricone last appeared at the venue seven years ago, when the crowd bellowed out 'Happy Birthday' to the Italian composer as he hit 75. It was a shock, then, to see Morricone, now in his early eighties, still skip out on stage like a man 20 years younger.



Perhaps his vigour is down to his dazzling work rate. Since 1961, he has worked on more than 500 film scores and is still going strong, recently popping up in Tarantino's INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS. Yet despite the acclaim for his work, particularly his legendary collaborations on Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns, he has never won an Oscar - a possible rebuke for his refusal to leave his beloved Rome for Hollywood.



This night's adoring audience was more than determined to make up for that slight as Morricone set about trying to summarise his own work.



He started off with a selection from his late Sixties scores, which set the template for Morricone's influential blend of the classical and modern: simple motifs that swell out with strings layered over funk grooves, or bossa nova swings shifting against abstract piano lines.



Joined by the soprano Susanna Rigacci and the Crouch End Chorus, everything shifted up a gear as he moved into his work with Leone. Yet while the theme to THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY reached a thrilling operatic climax, the sound levels overall were too quiet and there was something unsatisfying in catching such short glimpses of each work, like reading the first page of a dozen novels without ever getting into the story.



This frustration was resolved in the second act when Morricone moved into his later, more romantic style, culminating in the beautiful theme tune from THE MISSION, where the drama of the music claimed a story of its own.



Three standing encores later, the maestro, modestly bowing, was finally allowed to take his leave.

[pelam123]

Had the pleasure of being there. Hearing this music live sent shivers down the spine (especially the Leone scores). The Crouch End Choir were superb as was the Rome Sinfionetta particularly for The Mission, one of my favourite scores.



I agree that it could have been louder but that's only a minor grumble. What I did come awaynthinking was where on Earth are todays equivalents of Morricone, Herrman, Barry etc?

[jimw1]

name='pelam123']Had the pleasure of being there. Hearing this music live sent shivers down the spine (especially the Leone scores). The Crouch End Choir were superb as was the Rome Sinfionetta particularly for The Mission, one of my favourite scores.



I agree that it could have been louder but that's only a minor grumble. What I did come awaynthinking was where on Earth are todays equivalents of Morricone, Herrman, Barry etc?

Sounds Wonderful....wish I could have been there.....glad you enjoyed it....

[Freddie Freeloader]

name='pelam123']... where on Earth are todays equivalents of Morricone, Herrman, Barry etc?

How about John Williams, Randy Newman, Alexandre Desplat, Thomas Newman,

Carter Burwell, Danny Elfman, Mark Isham, Lalo Schifrin, Alan Sylvestri, Howard

Shore, Hans Zimmer, James Horner...?



Not all are particular favourites of mine but each has established their own individuality and a close identity with specific directors.

[pelam123]

name='Freddie Freeloader']How about John Williams, Randy Newman, Alexandre Desplat, Thomas Newman,

Carter Burwell, Danny Elfman, Mark Isham, Lalo Schifrin, Alan Sylvestri, Howard

Shore, Hans Zimmer, James Horner...?



Not all are particular favourites of mine but each has established their own individuality and a close identity with specific directors.

Well, I would certainly include Williams, Elmer Bernstein and Henry Mancini and possibly Schifrin and the late Jerry Goldsmith, with the greats but not really the others. All talented composers no doubt, but how many have written truly memorable iconic scores to rival Morricone's Westerns or The Mission or Herrmans Psycho or Vertigo?



Too much film music has become so generic that it's very rare these days for me to go to the cinema and come out even remembering part or any of the score let alone wanting to go and buy it or hear it performed at The Royal Albert Hall.