CD REVIEW
– POSTCARDS
FROM ITALY
Albonetti/Roma
Sinfonietta/Silvestri
Chandos CHAN 20291
[65:49]
I sometimes feel
the need to persuade the merits
of a disc to readers whose main
interest is light music, but not
with this appealing album. It
features the soprano saxophone of
Marco Albonetti, who has had two
other well reviewed releases: 'The
Music of Piazzolla' and,
surprisingly to me as a lover of
the dance (as a listener not a
participant), 'Amarcord D'Un
Tango' that seem to have
passed me by. I cannot find
anything much about Signor
Albonetti apart from his being
awarded first prize at several
international solo and chamber
music competitions and appearing
at myriad Italian theatres and
numerous distinguished
international venues including an
undated highly praised début at
Carnegie Hall in New York City.
This album
concentrates mainly on the works
of two outstanding Italian
composers of the kind of music we
like: Ennio Morricono (1928-2020)
and Nina Rota (1911-79). It is no
surprise that it begins with the
former's highly popular Gabriel's
Oboe and The Falls from
'The Mission'. There follows
his Playing Love from 'The
Legend of 1900', Nostalgia
and Looking for You (Love Theme)
from 'Nuovo Cinema Paradiso',
the better-known Deborah’s
Theme and Main Theme from 'Once
Upon a Time in America' and Main
Theme from the 2000 erotic
comedy-drama, 'Malèna'.
Featured soloists on a trio of
tracks are Michelangelo Carbonara
(piano) and Vincenzo Bolognese
(violin).
Rota contributes Theme
from 'Amarcord' – 1975
Oscar winner for Best Foreign
Film – The Godfather
Waltz, Reminiscence of Sicilian
pastorale and Love Theme from
'The Godfather' and Themes
from 'La dolce vita'. These
are orchestrated by Paolo
Silvestri (b 1960), who conducts
the accompanying Roma Sinfonietta
all through the album. The
orchestra was formed in 1994 and
collaborated with Morricone
himself in his sell out concerts
around the world.
Silvestri is
responsible both for the
arrangements and orchestrations
of everything else on the album,
including Joseph Lacalle's
(1859-1937) familiar Amapola
from 'Once Upon a Time in
America' and the last track,
Argentine saxophonist Gato
Barbieri’s (1932-2016) Theme
from 'Last Tango in Paris'.
Silvestri also composed Theme
from '‘Controvento'
('Against the Wind'), another
millennium movie, in which an
unstable actress and her
repressed child-psychiatrist
sister fall in love with the same
man. Such fun!
Among the films'
directors are Sergio Leone,
Federico Fellini, Francis Ford
Coppola and Bernardo Bertolucci.
The booklet
includes written notes to
accompany the musical ones by
both performer and arranger, as
well as the usual information on
the participants with a few
black-and-white photographs.
There is also an interesting
article on 'Music and Film' by
Carolyn and Gioacchino Balduicci.
Apart from 'The
Mission', I have not seen
any of the movies for which some
lovely music was composed nor
recognise most of the tunes, but
an advance copy of this typically
Italian relaxed release has
currently often been found in my
CD player.
©
Peter Burt, September
2023
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