Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone

1	The Mission, film score:
2	The Mission, film score:
3	The Legend of 1900, film
4	Nuovo cinema paradiso, fi
5	Nuovo cinema paradiso, fi
6	Malèna, film score: Main
7	Una Pura formalità, film
8	Once Upon a Time in Ameri
9	Once Upon a Time in Ameri
10	Once Upon a Time in Ameri
11	Once Upon a Time in the W
12	The Good, the Bad and the
13	Casualties of War, film s
14	The Untouchables, film sc
15	Moses the Lawgiver, telev
16	Moses the Lawgiver, telev
17	Marco Polo, television mi
18	La Califfa (Lady Caliph),
19	La Califfa (Lady Caliph),
Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone
1.	The Mission, film score: Gabriel's Oboe 3:13
	Composed by Ennio Morricone
	Conducted by Ennio Morricone
	Performed by Roma Sinfonietta and Yo-Yo Ma
2.	The Mission, film score: The Falls 2:28
	Composed by Ennio Morricone
	Conducted by Ennio Morricone
	Performed by Roma Sinfonietta and Yo-Yo Ma
3.	The Legend of 1900, film score: Playing Love 1:48
	Composed by Ennio Morricone / Amedeo Tommasi
	Conducted by Ennio Morricone
	Performed by Roma Sinfonietta and Yo-Yo Ma
4.	Nuovo cinema paradiso, film score (aka Cinama Paradiso): Nostalgia 1:58
	Composed by Ennio Morricone
	Conducted by Ennio Morricone
	Performed by Roma Sinfonietta and Yo-Yo Ma
5.	Nuovo cinema paradiso, film score (aka Cinama Paradiso): Looking for You 1:43
	Composed by Ennio Morricone
	Conducted by Ennio Morricone
	Performed by Roma Sinfonietta and Yo-Yo Ma
6.	Malèna, film score: Main Theme 4:21
	Composed by Ennio Morricone
	Conducted by Ennio Morricone
	Performed by Roma Sinfonietta and Yo-Yo Ma
7.	Una Pura formalità, film score: Main Theme 3:52
	Composed by Ennio Morricone
	Conducted by Ennio Morricone
	Performed by Roma Sinfonietta and Yo-Yo Ma
8.	Once Upon a Time in America, film score: Deborah's Theme 3:32
	Composed by Ennio Morricone
	Conducted by Ennio Morricone
	Performed by Roma Sinfonietta and Yo-Yo Ma
9.	Once Upon a Time in America, film score: Cockeye's Song 2:12
	Composed by Ennio Morricone
	Conducted by Ennio Morricone
	Performed by Roma Sinfonietta and Yo-Yo Ma
10.	Once Upon a Time in America, film score: Main Theme 1:48
	Composed by Ennio Morricone
	Conducted by Ennio Morricone
	Performed by Roma Sinfonietta and Yo-Yo Ma
11.	Once Upon a Time in the West, film score: Main Theme 3:21
	Composed by Ennio Morricone
	Conducted by Ennio Morricone
	Performed by Roma Sinfonietta and Yo-Yo Ma
12.	The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, film score: Ecstasy of Gold 3:58
	Composed by Ennio Morricone
	Conducted by Ennio Morricone
	Performed by Roma Sinfonietta and Yo-Yo Ma
13.	Casualties Of War, film score: Main Theme 3:53
	Composed by Ennio Morricone
	Conducted by Ennio Morricone
	Performed by Roma Sinfonietta and Yo-Yo Ma
14.	The Untouchables, film score: Death Theme 3:15
	Composed by Ennio Morricone
	Conducted by Ennio Morricone
	Performed by Roma Sinfonietta and Yo-Yo Ma
15.	Moses the Lawgiver, television film score: Journey 2:34
	Composed by Ennio Morricone
	Conducted by Ennio Morricone
	Performed by Roma Sinfonietta and Yo-Yo Ma
16.	Moses the Lawgiver, television film score: Main Theme 2:06
	Composed by Ennio Morricone
	Conducted by Ennio Morricone
	Performed by Roma Sinfonietta and Yo-Yo Ma
17.	Marco Polo, television mini-series score: Main Theme 3:24
	Composed by Ennio Morricone
	Conducted by Ennio Morricone
	Performed by Roma Sinfonietta and Yo-Yo Ma
18.	La Califfa, film score: Dinner 3:50
	Composed by Ennio Morricone
	Conducted by Ennio Morricone
	Performed by Roma Sinfonietta and Yo-Yo Ma
19.	La Califfa, film score: Nocturne 2:33
	Composed by Ennio Morricone
	Conducted by Ennio Morricone
	Performed by Roma Sinfonietta and Yo-Yo Ma

Barnes & Noble

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

All Music Guide

Sure to remain a top seller on the classical charts for some time to come, Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone is a new installment in the great cellist's long series of crossover albums. It diverges from most of the others, however, in its collaborative aspect: the music's original creator, Morricone, had as much to do with this album as did Ma and his creative team. Morricone's career in film music began during the era of the spaghetti Western in the 1960s and has flourished ever since, on both sides of the Atlantic. Morricone and Ma met at the 2001 Academy Awards, where Ma was performing and Morricone was nominated for his score to Giuseppe Tornatore's Malèna. They hatched the idea for this album together, and all the adaptations of Morricone's music are his own. He also conducts the Roma Sinfonietta Orchestra.

Overall, the results are gorgeous. Morricone opens and closes the album with pairs of excerpts from two individual films, The Mission and the rarely seen The Lady Caliph. In between are four suites of excerpts, three of them associated with Morricone's favorite directorial collaborators (Sergio Leone, Brian de Palma, and Tornatore). These suites, comprising varied but closely related stretches of music, really allow Ma to go to town. He has rarely achieved a more lushly beautiful tone or a more direct emotional appeal. Morricone deftly adapts his music for the cello-and-orchestra combination. At different times, Ma's cello plays the role of another solo instrument (the pan pipes in the Mission score, for instance), sings the wordless vocal lines that populate many of Morricone's scores, or plays lines of orchestral counterpoint that are elaborated into some pretty fancy fingerwork.

The only complaints pertain to the selection of music, and it's debatable whether there's really anything to complain about. Represented here are Morricone's big, romantic scores, mostly of fairly recent vintage. Cinema Paradiso, two cues from which are included, is an example casual filmgoers may be acquainted with. The edgier, more experimental scores Morricone wrote for Western and suspense films are ignored, and it was these that endeared the composer to scenesters like John Zorn, who recorded a memorable deconstruction of The Big Gundown some years ago. On the few tracks where electronic elements are introduced, they aren't well integrated into the general concept. As a whole, though, the album hangs together wonderfully, and the music can stand up to anything in the current neo-Romantic rage. Play the "Cockeye's Song" cue from Once Upon a Time in America for classical purists unfamiliar with Morricone, and ask them to guess the composer. Watch them squirm. And then introduce one of the great composers of our time, presented by one of our foremost interpreters. James Manheim