Cinema Rarities for violin and string orchestra follows on from the album Cinema Suites for Violin and Orchestra, released in 2022 by the same label. Towards the end of his life, Morricone revisited many of his film scores, arranging them for violin and orchestra. Both the ‘greatest hits’ and some hidden treasures received this special treatment. While the 2022 album concentrated on the former, this one, freshly released on the Arcana label, sheds light on previously unreleased works and other rarely heard gems (with the exception of Man with a Harmonica from Once Upon a Time in the West, and Chi mai, arranged by violinist Marco Serino). You can’t help but be torn by emotion when you hear these melodies of rare power (La califfa, Chi mai, associated for a long time to come with French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo, aka “The professional”, Le clan des Siciliens, Lolita). But we remain uncertain as to the necessity of this “classicalisation” of the composer’s music.
If you’ve seen the magnificent tribute paid to Morricone by director Giuseppe Tornatore in his film Ennio, you know that the composer has always felt a kind of inferiority complex towards ‘real’ classical composers, not only those of the past, but above all his contemporaries who didn’t write for the cinema (often out of snobbery, but probably also because they simply didn’t have the talent to do it and write endearing melodies that are not tacky! Film music is difficult. And succeeding in making a name for yourself that transcends genres and time, as Morricone did, is very, very rare! Anyway….).
So we can guess that behind these suites for violin and orchestra, Morricone wanted to leave a more ‘classical’ (legitimate?) legacy for the performers and orchestras of the future. Probably in the hope that these packages, in a format better known to classical circles than scattered soundtracks that you have to dig through to find nuggets inside, would allow his music to find favour with their ears. Here and there he has even winked at tradition, such as a hint of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in his arrangement of Deborah’s Theme, itself inserted in the suite Quattro adagi (Four adagios).
And yet this is the great Ennio’s main mistake: failing to grasp the extent to which his fantastic post-modern synthesis makes him one of the greatest creators of the 20th century. An originality made up of classical music (of course), but also of pop, rock, jazz and unique, ecumenical orchestrations (he invited synthesizers, electric guitar, drums and bass into the orchestra, as well as all sorts of other weird and delightfully strange sources of sound). Morricone has achieved a kind of collective catharsis that has consigned to irrelevance the bickering between high art and low art, between classical music and rock or pop, between academicism and novelty, between tradition and rebellious youth. Morricone, without really meaning to, or at least guessing it, may have done what Bach did in his day, who said “Down with styles, I’m mixing everything, and the best of each, and that’s the way it’s going to be!’’ Morricone’s soundtracks, as they are, are masterpieces.
That said, please don’t misunderstand me: for the Morricone lover that I am, and that you are too if you’ve made it this far, the melodies deployed through these rewrites tinged with great and beautiful nostalgia are still as incredibly poignant as they were on their debut, but with a warm velvety quality that we’d be foolish and insensitive to denigrate. What’s more, Marco Serino is obviously passionate about his subject. He plays with great sensitivity, and is ably supported by the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto. His Man With a Harmonica is impressive in the closeness of the sounds he draws from his violin to Charles Bronson’s famous harmonica. As much as I hesitate on my final thoughts on the subject, I can’t help but play this album over and over again. That’s Morricone’s strength.
So, are these highly romantic arrangements, geared towards a certain idea of what the classical music establishment thinks of as ‘good taste’, necessary or not?
Intellectually, perhaps not. Emotionally, however, who cares? Your opinion will be the right one, whatever its nature and divergence, but the love of Ennio and his genius will be exactly the same.
