There are a few on here - if they make themselves known. you could try the chi mai website and the morricone forum. Its not as busy as it should be. But then thats all of our faults.
Welcome, Rupert! I've been a Morricone fan for around 20 years now and have been fortunate to be able to see him conducting his own works three times by now (Ghent 1999, Munich 2004, Antwerp 2012). The Morricone forum Bill Carson mentioned can be found at http://www.enniomorricone.it/forum/viewforum.php?f=4, but in recent years this forum here has seen Morricone appreciation increase, too.
Posted: Mar 30, 2011 - 10:09 AM Edit Post Report Abuse Reply to Post By: Morricone (Member)
THE MEADOW Il Prato Pastoral Morricone #50
This series is inspired by a controversy thread where someone posited the idea that besides THE MISSION and some Sergio Leone westerns Ennio Morricone hasn't written anything great. Rather than making my usual comment that most of Morricone's great scores are from Italy and trying to get Americans to listen to them is like getting them to see movies with subtitles, I decided to take another tact. Since I am at an age where I will only be able to make my case a finite number of times I decided to turn this into a series presenting each great score one at a time, sort of like recordman.
I'd thought I'd end this thing on a simple and serene note. When I first got this LP I thought it was a bit sleepy because it was in the midst of some pretty exciting scores. But after quite a few years I found it was one of those themes that keeps coming back to me:
As I said on the ALLONSANFAN thread (#25) these two films did not make money or else I have no doubt the Taviani Brothers would have continued their association with Morricone as both these scores are superb. But since their next big hit was NIGHT OF THE SHOOTING STARS and that was scored by Nicola Piovani, it began their wonderful association with him. THE MEADOW was an art film about a clerk, Eugenia (Isabella Rosselini) and her two lovers Enzo, an agriculturist, who wants to start a community farm in San Gimignano and Giovanni (Saverio Marconi), a lawyer who comes to settle his grandfather's estate. It is a brooding piece but has the beautiful Tuscan landscape to brood in. This and Eugenia's love for the local theater gives plenty of colors for Morricone to bring to his score. Lovely and lyrical is has a leisurely quality that is rare to find. Unfortunately it had only one release on CD of the 30 minute LP on the Cam label. But it is sublime.
The film won the Silver Ribbon in 1980 for Best New Actress for Isabella Rossellini by the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists.
I am a fan, but do not have that large of a Morricone collection. THE MISSION and THE UNTOUCHABLES are some of my favorites. Glad to see he is still composing today.
