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Editorial Reviews

Credit Yo-Yo Ma with the gift of perfect timing. On the heels of the passing of Jerry Goldsmith, David Raksin, and Elmer Bernstein -- great film composers whose deaths within the span of a month in mid-2004 provoked widespread "end-of-an-era" pronouncements -- Ma delivers this homage to one of their most esteemed colleagues, Ennio Morricone. The prolific Morricone boasts hundreds of film scores over his long career, and Ma's album focuses on some of the best known, collecting music from Once Upon a Time in America, Cinema Paradiso, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, to name a few. Morricone crafted the lush arrangements specifically to highlight Ma's expressive cello, grouping much of the music into suites centered on the directors Giuseppe Tornatone, Sergio Leone, and Brian De Palma. Other tracks feature themes from Roland Joffé's The Mission, the television miniseries Moses and Marco Polo, and music from Alberto Bevilacqua's The Lady Caliph. Throughout, Ma's deft touch and plush tone animate the composer's singing melodies -- try the music to The Mission, in which a plangent oboe soars with Ma's countermelody over an accompaniment of verdant strings, or the equally lovely music to Once Upon a Time in America, which matches the Romantics in lyrical sweep. No doubt, Ma's star power will incite many listeners to explore further the oft-overlooked film composer's art, and this abundantly tuneful album is a perfect point of entry. EJ Johnson, Barnes & Noble

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