Lucia

It seems to me that recently Ennio Morricone has been producing some of his finest music in years, and this latest release from Rai Trade provides further evidence. Lucia was a television film produced by RAI and aired in 2005.

The music is elegant, emotive, melodic and haunting. In many ways it recalls the romantic and comic sections from the 1970’s picture Anche se volessi lovare, che faccio, in-particular the track on that score entitled Lei se ne more, albeit without the choir.

When listening to Lucia, it is hard to come to terms with the fact that each theme one is hearing comes from the same movie, as there are so many musically worthy cues contained on the one disc, so it’s a case of quality as well as quantity with this score. There are delicate and touching tone poems, which are accompanied by buoyant - almost playful - compositions that are simple but entertaining and effective, plus we are treated to slightly more complex sounding but even further entertaining cues performed on violin, woods, piano and harpsichord as in track number 7 Con tritezza. The composer also surpasses himself on the title cue track, Lucia, which is a slow and highly tender sort of starry eyed composition that utilises underlying strings to support a woodwind melody.

It all manages to evoke the distinct and wonderful sound of the silver age of Italian film music perfectly, and is an essential purchase for any Morricone devotee, in fact it is an essential buy for any collector of superior film music in general. It is a soundtrack that one can put in the player and sit back relax and drift off into a world that is hopefully less stressful than ours, giving the listener a sense of de-ja vu of an age of film music that is sadly no longer with us, I cannot recommend Lucia highly enough: so many themes, so much quality music - every track is a classic Morricone composition. Another wonderful release of Italian film music on this now well established label.

John Mansell © 2006.