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]