Pretty soon
as I discovered Maestro Ennio Morricone’s music with his score to Il clan dei Siciliani I also found out
that he was doing massive concert tours around Europe. Since I live in Finland
I never thought I could actually see Maestro perform live. The outskirts of
Europe aren’t a popular place to visit for international superstars and when
Maestro turned 80, I already thought that his days might be numbered.
However in
the autumn of 2015 I was absolutely dumbfounded when it was announced that
Maestro would come to perform a concert in Helsinki during his The 60 years of music tour. This would
not only be his first time in Finland but the only concert held in the Nordic
countries as well. I immediately ordered a ticket because the date of March
2016 would perfectly be around my Easter holidays. Unfortunately only a few
weeks before the concert was due, the devastating news arrived: Maestro had to
cancel his concert due to back problems. I realized that my opportunity to see
this living legend live had vanished into thin air. Or so I thought.
During the
spring of 2016 it was announced that a new date for the concert was scheduled
for 30th of November. I was first skeptical whether I could attend
or not because of the strict nature of my studies. However I decided to hold on
to my original tickets. During the autumn I followed all the announcements about
the concert with anxiety because of the previous cancellation. It was only
after I saw that he had performed in Stockholm 2 days prior when I realized
that my ultimate dream could actually come true.
In the
morning of 30th of November I finally stepped onto a train to
Helsinki and started the 4-hour journey. The landscape was all covered in a
fresh snow layer like the nature itself was celebrating the Maestro’s arrival
to Finland. The venue for the concert was Hartwall Arena, more famous for its
usage in ice hockey. When I arrived there, I was surprised to see no outside
adverts about the concert. Some lesser Finnish artists and stand up comedians
had their banners though… After standing in line for 30 minutes I got in and
visited the souvenir store like any other tourist. I bought the new compilation
album 60 years of music with a DVD
and the totally obscure Morricone record that he produced himself and which is
only sold during his concerts called Bambini
del mondo. The programme was designed in a book form and was a nice memory
from the concert to take home with. I had a seat at the floor level relatively
near the orchestra. The whole arena was teeming and breathing like before a
sporting event and almost every one of the 10000 seats was taken.
The performers
started to flow onto the stage starting with the Finnish choir Grex Musicus Choir followed by Czech National Symphony Orchestra that has been Maestro’s
collaborator for years already. However when the Maestro came to the stage the
whole audience already gave him a standing ovation of a good 2 minutes without
him even conducting a single note. Then the lights went out, everyone went
silent and the first delicate harp notes appeared…
The
evening’s programme was as follows:
A homage to Giuseppe Tornatore
·
The legend of 1900 (from The legend
of 1900)
·
Tarantella (from Baarìa)
Scattered sheets
·
Chi mai (from Maddalena)
·
H2S (from H2S)
·
Metti, una sera a cena (from Metti,
una sera a cena)
·
Croce d’amore (from Metti, una sera
a cena)
·
Cinema Paradiso (from Cinema
Paradiso)
·
Tema d’amore (from Cinema Paradiso)
A homage to Mauro Bolognini
·
Per le antiche scale (from Per le
antiche scale)
·
Irene-Dominique (from L’eredità
Ferramonti)
The modernity of the myth in Sergio Leone’s
cinema
·
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly –
Main theme (from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly)
·
Jill’s Theme (from Once upon a time
in the West)
·
Sean, Sean (from A fistful of
dynamite)
·
The ecstasy of gold (from The Good,
the Bad and the Ugly)
- Soprano Susanna Rigacci
Intermission
The hateful eight
·
Stage coach to Red Rock
·
Bestiality
3 adagi
·
Deborah’s theme (from Once upon a
time in America)
·
Addio Monti (from I promessi sposi)
·
Vatel’s theme (from Vatel)
The red tent
·
Do dreams go on
·
They’re alive (SOS)
·
Others who will follow us
The mission
·
Gabriel’s oboe
·
Falls
·
On earth as it is in heaven
Encore 1: Abolisson (from Queimada)
Encore 2: The ecstasy of gold (from The Good, the Bad
and the Ugly)
Encore 3: On earth as it is in heaven (from The mission)
The concert
began marvelously with Maestro’s epic love song to the sea. After the
aforementioned harp solo, some fragments of madness started to lure in in a
form of jazzy snippets. The orchestral performance of those snippets though was
a bit rushed and not that precise but fortunately this was the only time when
some orchestral mishaps happened during the night. When the magnificent main
theme reached its climax I was holding back tears because the wave of sound was
just so immense. This happened many times at the beginning of the concert and
only during the performance of Tema
d’amore from Cinema Paradiso I
finally shed a tear of joy because I wasn’t prepared that they would have
performed this moving piece. I felt emotional even during the martial Tarantella because the orchestra and
even the stone-faced Maestro seemed to have so much fun with it.
After that homage we got a collection of miscellaneous
pieces from obscure films starting with Chi
mai. As I wrote in my review of Maddalena’s
score, it truly is a piece of beauty. The atmosphere was pretty laid-back with
sleazy bass playing. However that atmosphere was broken by a cheerful
classically inspired H2S which was
among the concert’s very best performances. All the nuances from different
instruments were performed so effortlessly. The sleazy bass and electric guitar
returned accompanying the cheesy, bouncy melody of Metti, una sera a cena. It was only during this cue, when Maestro loosened
his metronome-like precision and had some swing with his conducting. Elsewhere
he seemed very concentrated on the sheet music, but when he gave the players
personal direction during a cue, the audience got to witness a moment of warm
glance and mutual respect. The second piece from Metti… brings images of an urban cityscape to mind. However this
performance was even more menacing and provided the only moment of unease of
the first half. The piano player was set free and improvised the simple melodic
core wildly. The section concluded with two pieces from Cinema Paradiso which were oh so beautiful and serene. I bet there
was no dry eye in the audience after Tema
d’amore had finished. Another homage
consisting of 2 pieces arrived next. Per
le antiche scale was an intimate duet for a solo flute and piano but Irene-Dominique was so massive in its
arrangement that it was pleasing though the melody isn’t really that original
among Maestro’s other works.
It was time
for the finale of the first half with a suite of Sergio Leone’s film themes. Susanna
Rigacci walked to the stage in a red dress and the audience managed to make her
smile with The Good, the Bad and the
Ugly’s beginning when someone from the audience whistled the famous
wolf-call over the pulsating opening line. This was also the first showpiece
for the 50 member choir and they succeeded. I especially enjoyed the choir’s
sopranos who sounded very fresh and young which worked perfectly during the
concert’s latter half. Maestro showed that ageing hadn’t slowed him down
because during many pieces the tempos were much faster than in the originals, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly being no
exception. Rigacci however sounded a bit flat at the beginning of Jill’s Theme but got much better during Sean, Sean and even playful during the
massive ending The ecstasy of gold
which received another standing ovation of several minutes.
The second
half began with Maestro’s Oscar winning score to The hateful eight. It was by far the most challenging section
during the whole concert. The reptile like quality of the sneaky main theme was
brilliantly achieved by the bassoons and tuba. Once again the tempo was faster
and got actually rather exhilarating at the end, but Bestiality (originally written for John Carpenter’s The Thing) brought the madness to new
heights. I think that the lowest bowed instruments in this piece weren’t so
audible due to mixing and that’s why the piece lacked some of its punch but it
gave me goosebumps nevertheless. The craziness was balanced with 3 adagi which was programme-wise the
only mishap of the concert. I’ve never understood the praise of Deborah’s theme. It’s a nice little
melody but nothing more and even though the performance was emotional, it never
highlighted the actual piece in any way. The other two cues chosen were already
done much better during the first half’s romantic material. However at the end
I think we needed some time to breath after the shock caused by The hateful eight and Maestro’s solution
was passable.
For me the
highlight of the concert was the suite from The
red tent because it was something I didn’t know what to expect of since I
had heard a recording of a live performance of pretty much every other piece. Besides
the main theme of that film is a forgotten gem of a melody. That main theme was
introduced in a massive arrangement with a soft choral backing. However the
serene quality was broken by They’re
alive (SOS) which includes the Morse code rambling and almost aleatoric
dissonance where the instruments were played seemingly independent of each
other. Simply thrilling stuff! The section concluded however with another
dreamlike main theme reprise for the choir and solo viola. The piece continued
without pauses straight to the last section, The mission, which is surely a crowd pleaser and a regular end to a
Morricone concert. The performance of Gabriel’s
oboe was rather understated in a good way. The oboist wasn’t forcing the
emotion but rather just letting the melody speak for itself. Also Falls was performed similarly: there was
a certain serenity floating around the arena and orchestra which made the piece
breathe. The rousing finale however turned a bit into a cacophony of melodic
brilliance and due to the immense sound barrier I couldn’t really tell if the
choir was only singing long lines and missed the rhythmic section completely. The
audience seemed to love it though and Morricone gave three encores and the last
standing ovation took probably 10 minutes altogether. He even seemed a bit
astonished and when he began the last reprise of On earth as it is in heaven, he accidentally started to conduct a
wrong piece. However when Finns are allowed to be around alcohol (the arena has
bars you see) they unfortunately can become a bit shouty. This partly drunken
yelling was apparent before the last 2 encores and at least to me was
disrespectful to the artist.
Overall the
concert was a night to remember, a once-of-a-lifetime opportunity to see one of
the last film music legends still alive and surprisingly well. Though Maestro
had aged significantly from when we saw him at the Oscars nearly a year ago,
there still was an internal fire and passion to present his music to a new
audience. A sign of great artistry in my opinion was also that he didn’t
address the audience or give any speeches. He just lets his music do the talking.
And since this is his last tour, we hope to hear that talking if possible for
many more years where it suits best: accompanying a film. Thank you Maestro
Morricone for giving Finland a chance! Grazie mille!
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