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Ennio Morricone
Morricone In Concert...
Ennio Morricone is returning to London to perform with the Rome
Symphony Orchestra on Monday 10 November 2003 at The Royal
Albert Hall, London to celebrate his 75th Birthday. Tickets go on sale
on 15 September. A short documentary about the man and his work
will be screened at 6.30pm that evening.
Ennio Morricone is a musical genius. Almost everything he touches turns to gold. I was a late
starter in gaining an appreciation of his work. It wasn't until the mid-'80s that he really started to get
under my skin in the best possible way. Initially, it was Incantation who aroused my interest with
their haunting and evocative contribution to my own personal favourite film score, the music from
The Mission . Set in the rainforests of South America, The Mission, directed by Roland Joffe in 1986
and starring Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons, is a story of the struggle for the body and soul of the
native Guarani Indians between misguided Jesuit priests and the conquering Spanish colonialists.
However, it turned out that the superb film score was penned by Ennio Morricone (pictured above),
the Italian master musician and tracks like Gabriel's Oboe and On Earth As It Is In Heaven were
brought to life by the vivid and imaginative instrumentation of Incantation and the excellent
orchestration of the London Philharmonic. It later attracted an unsuccessful Oscar nomination (still
http://cambodia.e-files.dk/ennio.html (1 of 7)22-03-2005 21:17:24
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regarded by many as a travesty of justice that it didn't win the award) for its soundtrack while
collecting Golden Globe and BAFTA awards and best score at the Cannes film festival.
Morricone is one of the most successful and influential of modern-day big screen composers with
over 400 film scores to his credit. He has enhanced movies with a mixture of distinctive styles for the
last thirty years - from the twangy spaghetti western sounds of Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dol