CD Reviews: Ennio Morricone Gold Edition and Gli Indifferenti
Ennio Morricone Gold Edition ****
ENNIO MORRICONE
GDM 0160592
Disc One: 16 tracks - 60:42 Disc Two: 17 tracks -
61:04 Disc Three: 17 tracks - 60:24
Ennio Morricone theme compilations are about as rare as delivered
pizza, and while they almost always make great albums, they're
generally filled with the same stuff. Whoever produced this album (GDM,
actually) must have been thinking the same thing as me. Which is, what
if somebody produced one really definitive Morricone compilation -- a
box set packed with material; one that has everything other
compilations have and lots more; one that really is the very, very best
of Morricone, assembled in a gorgeous package. Because that's what this
nearly is. Sure, it's got lots of the same old tracks, but it couldn't
be definitive without them. It also has a lot of tracks you'd not
normally find, such as Oceano,
The Endless Game and the
stupendous Quiemada. Of 50
tracks, I count 20 that aren't on other Morricone compilations I own.
And I own a fair few.
It is the definitive compilation? Not quite. You'll still need the
Mondo Morricone set for tracks from
Città Violenta and the fantastic Vergogna Schifosi. You'll still
need Rhino's A Fistful Of Film Music to get The Battle Of Algiers, Garden Of Delights and Ad Ogni Costo. Maybe one more disc
with tracks like these would have allowed The Gold Collection to
completely obscure other Morricone compilations. It hasn't, so it
doesn't, but if there is a Morricone compilation out there that is
number one, it's this one. It's the ideal way to own lots of great
Morricone in one spend -- a totally loaded package with great theme
after great theme from one of cinema's most brilliant theme writers.
How can it not get top marks? -- Stephen
Woolston
Gli Indifferenti ****
ENNIO MORRICONE
GDM 2049
14 tracks - 53:14
Another of Ennio Morricone's many mini-series television scores finds
its way to CD. Gli Indifferenti
is a1988 series directed and co-written by Mauro Bolognini. The
director and composer collaborated on some 17 projects, including
Bolognini's last feature film, Husbands
and Lovers (1992). This project comes after a string of noted
scores in the 1980s that caused a returning resurgence of interest in
Morricone's music on a broader level.
The opening title track is classic Morricone melodrama with a
sparsely-textured string ensemble playing a winding, unsettling
chromatic melody. When the piano enters into the texture, it bears a
slight resemblance to Bob Cobert's score for The Winds of War mini-series,
crossed with a little Philip Sarde's string writing from Ghost Story. The track appears to
be pieced together from several statements of this thematic idea. As
the score unfolds, the simplicity of Morricone's heartfelt lyric lines
constantly amazes. He is one of the few composers who can do so much
with a bare minimum of material. His harmonic palette shifts between
light and dark with subtle changes in orchestration that remind you why
he is so admired in the film community.
Gli Indiffenti turns out to be one of those subdued scores of
exquisite beauty. It is less thematically rich, tending towards more
melodramatic underscoring with the occasional lyric idea layered into
the overall texture. Many of the tracks here are at least three minutes
in length, allowing the ideas to flow in large arches.
Once again, there is little information to increase one's knowledge of
the music, the track listings, the performers, or the film. No doubt,
GDM rests its sales on people looking for rare Italian soundtracks
without any historical or film information. The sound here is good,
though you may have to turn the volume up a bit to hear some of the
unbelievably quiet string sections. The disc is easily recommendable to
Morricone fans, and if you enjoy his less experimental orchestral
scores from the 1980s, this is definitely worth adding to your
collection. -- Steven A. Kennedy
MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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