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Saw the London
concert last night at the Royal AlbertHall. Hello's again to to
Tom and Pat. Well, IMHO thistimes he's nailed it perfectly. With
a few tweaks it's the same concert as usual, but every little niggle
has been ironed out in terms of pace, tempo, percussion.
It was just perfect. The "showstoppers" ie Ecstasy of
Gold, Abolicao and The Mission, but also Giu La Testa and GBU were
helped imeasurably by the drummer, Enzo
Restuuccia who knew to drive the whole piece along with perfect
feeling for the material. Not
unsurprisingly given that he has been percussionist for Morricone
dating back at least as far back as "A "Quiet Day in the
Country" (1969). Susanna Rigacci too was much more controlled
and didn't attempt to swamp the orchestra in full-on diva pomp,
but rather became,as Edda before her an important part of the ensemble
-and crucially for the sake of recreating the authentic
sound - controlled her vibrato.
Surprises (for
me at least) came in the form of some of the work he as introduced
into the concert. The evening kicked off with the main title theme
(not the end title, which I thought he would plump for)from "The
Untouchables". Later we were treated to a long suite from "Canone
Inverso" which then segued into 3 cues from "The Red Tent"
- I never thought I'd be lucky enough to hear that beautiful love
them live!
This was the first time I'd heard Dulce Pontes sing the theme from
"Luz Prodigiosa" and it was suitably sublime. A real treat
came at the end of 30 minutes of encores - all reprises - when Dulce
launched ino an english language treatment of Gabriels Oboe from
"The Mission". She imbued it with her inimitable Fado
style and it was just beautiful. It appears on her new CD
with Morricone. The only other surprise was one the orchestra and
choir had for Morricone, when, after numerous encores they launched
into a sprited rentidition of "Happy Birthday to You".
His reaction will be forever shrouded in mystery as he had his back
turned to us, but I think he was genuinlly touched.
A great evening,
my fourth concert, and in my opinion, the best yet.[by Steve Saragossi]
Superb concert.I
hadn't seen Morricone live before so i don't know if it was or was
not like his other recent concerts.With the exception of The Good
The Bad And The Ugly[which would have been very difficult to copy
exactly],pretty much all the pieces sounded like the originals.Not
being a Morricone expert,there was alot of great music I had not
even heard before,although the highlights for me were the Sergio
Leone suite which comprised of GBU,Once Upon a Time In
The West,Fistful Of Dynamite[probably my fav. Morricone piece],the
Once Upon A time In America
suite,The Legend Of 1900 and ofcourse The Mission which was the
concert's climax,not including the encores which included an interesting
version of The Mission in English.I would have like to have heard
some of Morricone's Dario Argento stuff[although it may have turned
off the audience!,or 1900,or Wolf,but with so much great music to
choose form it must have
been difficult to select the programme.Still,a terrific concert
and a great evening. [by Sean
Mallory] Hi, I was at the concert at the Royal Albert Hall on the
10th Nov 2003. What a treat it was. It was enough for me to be in
the presence of the great man himself, but I cant scribe how wonderful
the concert was. To say shivers were constantly going down my spine
would
be an understatement.To hear live the wonderful music of Ennio will
be something that will stay with me for ever. The evening seemed
to fly by and I was was entranced by the meastros direction and
the performance from the orchestra and choir. I am still in Morricone
heaven and dont want to come down. Regards to all fans who proved
to be an enthusiastic
bunch and gave the great man a warm reception and in the end did
not want him to go. I felt for him as you could see he wanted to
please which he did. He gave a performance which would have exhausted
a person half his age. If you can get hold of the Arena Concerto
CD
it will give you an idea of how it sounded on the night. Close your
eyes and your there. Cheers from Steve. [by Steve Conner]
LA TENDA ROSSA
- indeed, what a treat! I remember buying the LP more than 30 years
ago, while away on a university track meet, guarding it on the plane
back, and sitting down, listening, with tears flowing to that memorable
side one, and feeling that strange single cue, side two, "To
others who will follow", very much summed up what I was learning
in university. More the pity that the film itself won so little
recognition, and was better known for the production
conflicts involving Sean Connery's participation, and more the pity
that the CD version is hardly a worthy momento of Morricone's achievement.
[by Simon]
Just to add
my own praise, I thought this was a sensational concert. The highlights
for me were Canone Inverso and The Red Tent, two of my favourite
Morricone scores, and two I didn't think I would ever hear live.
The fleshed-out, full-length violin concerto in the former was just
sensational and I think during The Red Tent, even my goosebumps
had goosebumps.
[by James]
I'm still pinching
myself after last night's absolutely sensational performance. After
pending a tiring day around London, the concert couldn't come soon
enough for myself and my wife perched high in a box on the right
side of the RAH, my 1st visit. The view was excellent and I loved
every minute of it. Morricone seemed to revel in the whole night
and the reception he received. I've no idea about the reception
he gets elsewhere in Europe but I'm sure he must've been pleased
with the audience last night. He seemed to get caught up in th emotion
and became very affectionate to the singers, Gilda and some of his
key soloists. Each and every soloist played their part to perfection
I thought. As a fan of Dulces Pontes I loved her additions
(Sostiene Pereira is a top fave) and was blown away with the words
to The Mission in the encore. And Susanna Rigacci was superb as
well, topping her Barbican performance. There were so many wondeful
moments - it was certainly a night to remember and as a concert
I thought it bested the Barbican, though that was an experience
never to forget as I had the pleasure of meeting Ennio in person.
At one point, my wife who is not overly enamoured with Ennio's music,
was caught up in the emotion of the night and was brought to tears
- now that's a result!!
I hope the reception he received will persuade Ennio to return to
the UK in the future. Its a massive undertaking bringing together
the orchestra and the soloists, but we're worth it....
http://cambodia.e-files.dk/ennio.html [by Andy Brouwer]
I was an unforgettable
night yet again. It really doesn't matter how often you hear the
Maestro perform. And it was a real treat to see/hear him in this
most splendid of venues (although I personally preferred the acoustics
at the Barbican?!) I share the opinions on The Red Tent. Certainly
one of the outstanding pieces of the concert that would send shivers
down my spine. Also liked Canone Inverso. However, my personal highlight
has to be Dulce singing
'The Mission'. That was absolutely breathtaking. Now I'm even more
desperate to hear the 'Focus' album!
It was also great to see some old friends again: Steve, Laurence,
Pat B & Pat C etc. I also happened to sit next to Dave Anthony
- some coincidence. And I met others like John Mansell and one of
Addie's friends from the States. Shame time passes so quickly though...
Ennio was in full flow. He must have had a few glasses before the
concert. He was smiling, waiving his baton etc on numerous occasions.
So unlike him. And he looked really touched when the orchestra and
the audience did the 'Happy Birthday'. It was a bit disappointing
, however, that he didn't make time for the 20 odd fans who stayed
behind after the concert trying to get his autograph. He could've
signed one piece for everybody in less than 10 minutes and verybody
would've been happy. As it was there were some very disgruntled
folk at the end. Never mind...
Cheers [by Tom]
Thanks for your
reports, guys. Looks indeed like it was a tremendous evening for
the lucky ones who were in attendance. Only a complementary question:
if I'm not mistaken, noone has evoked yet the documentary shown
before the performance. What was it like ? A known item ? Something
likely to be found on the Arena Concerto DVD ? Thanks in advance
[by Laurent]
The documentary
was actually 40min from the upcoming DVD! It started with several
Morricone pieces and after about 25min or so we finally got some
thoughts of Morricone on various aspects. For example, Ennio said
that he told Andrea that he shouldn't become a composer as he didn't
feel at first that he would make it. But he admits that Andrea proved
him wrong.
I saw some folk leaving the hall when they saw that it was just
music at the beginning. It was obviously not what they were expecting.
I was hoping that they would have the DVD on sale, but
they only had the Arena CD. Hope this answers your question, Laurent.
Cheers [by Tom]
Hi Tom/All Glad you got back safely to Scotland and was great to
meet you. Yes, time does pass too quickly as it would have been
nice to have a longer chat. Sorry you did not get to meet the Maestro
at the end. I was with a friend who did not want to hang around
at the end, otherwise I would have waited as well! What a great
concert, my highlights were The Red Tent
and the suite from Casualties of War (one of my all time favourites).
I was again impressed by how good Investigation of a Citizen.. and
La Classe Operaria...sounded sounded, considering they are not easy
pieces. Credit to EM for including things that have not always been
popular with his fans.
I also enjoyed the short film and it was interesting to hear things
like METTI UNA CERA A SENA (Footsteps) and I PROMESSI SPOSI played
by just piano and flute,they sounded great in chamber form. The
interview with EM was very good as well. so lets look forward to
the full DVD.
Hopefully there will be some good write ups in the
next MSV.
Let's hope that EM will be back in England soon - VIVA MORRICONE!
All the best, Dave [by David Anthony]
Yeah, what a
wonderful evening! I was really touched by the CASUALTIES OF WAR-suite,
there were times, when I had some problems with that score, but
I was speechless! Same with CANONE INVERSO (Antonio Salvatore -
great!) and LA TENDA ROSSA. No more words to THE MISSON or IL DESERTO
DEI TARTARI....! I think LEGEND OF 1900 was not so satisfying....some
little flaws.
And....I think the ALBERT HALL was the right place - Iwas blown
away by the beauty (outside and inside)!I will never forget this
great evening![by Torsten] For me, nothing can ever beat Rome '98
as that was my first, but the concert at the RAH was a wonderful
evening's ntertainment full of emotion from start to finish. I'm
not sure how many people the hall holds
but even in the balconies up in the ceiling, where there appeared
to be no seats, people were stood up against the railings for the
whole three hours. They must have needed binoculars to see. If given
the choice it is certain that no two Morriconians would come up
with the same program so the selection on the night cannot really
be argued with. One of the strange things is that, at home, I don't
really like and rarely, if ever, listen to the QUEIMADA piece that
is played at these concerts, but the manner in which it is performed
at the concerts turns it into an astounding unmissable work. No
one could ever duplicate the irreplaceble Edda but
Susanna did fine bearing in mind what she was up against. Funnily
enough, I thought the GBU main theme played this time sounded slightly
different to Rome and the Barbican but I couldn't pinpoint exactly
what was different. During the spine-chilling ECSTACY OF GOLD, Ennio,
at the climax point, practically leaps off the podium and lifts
the whole orchestra and chorus off
their feet - a magnificent sight!!
I thought Dulce Pontes was sensational, even better than previous.
OK, if you didn't already know the words to SACCO AND VANZETTI it
may have been hard to understand her words but then I didn't understand
SOSTIENNE PEREIRA and it didn't make the slightest
difference - this song haunts me for ever. The performance of CANONE
INVERSO had to be seen and heard to be believed and THE RED TENT
is one of my all-time favourites. My (very) old LP is worn to shreds.
By the time CASUALTIES OF WAR was over I was "gone" emotionally
- in concert it even rises above its already essential beauty. At
the end the entire audience was on their feet
begging for more. I had a pact with Ned Boyle from Baltimore who
was seated beside me. I promised him an Irish "yah-ooooo"
for every American "yee-hawwwww" he could produce and
between us we got another encore out of Ennio and Dulce. I can't
wait for this new CD.
It was great to meet up with Ned, Tom and the other Irish Pat. It
was great to see Michael Nyman and Professor Frayling there, two
great fans like ourselves. It was another great experience of a
lifetime. The CLASSIC FLICKS concert at the same venue last night
proved to be a complete contrast and in a much lighter vein. It
was really a "popcorn" concert and, in that respect, it
succeeded extremely well but any concert with a name like that which
didn't nclude
even one Morricone theme couldn't be taken seriously. There was
no real passion from the ather different and very much younger audience.
However, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra did provide us with wonderful
renditions of Elmer Bernstein's THE GREAT ESCAPE, John William's
SCHINDLER'S LIST and STAR WARS, Maurice Jarre's LAWRENCE OF ARABIA,
and John Barry's
GOLDFINGER. I'm afraid, though, that SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE practically
put me to sleep and caused endless shuffling of feet around me.
David Arnold put in a guest appearance and conducted the opening
title which I didn't ecognise . The most amazing sight of the night
was the percussionist who, during one piece, was seen leaving his
drums and arming himself with a wooden mallet about ten foot in
length following which he proceeded to strike (batter?)in tempo
the wooden surround of what appeared to be an enormous sound speaker.
It sounded like King Kong trying to escape from his captors.
[by Pat Cleary]
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