With his score to
Bernardo Bertolucci
's 1976 historical epic
Novecento
,
Ennio Morricone
delivered one of the richest efforts of his legendary career. A sweeping and impressively variegated work, it manages to capture the period detail required to complement
Bertoluccio
's onscreen narrative, yet boasts a timelessness that's the hallmark of all the composer's masterpieces.
Morricone
's mastery of mood and texture reaches new zeniths here.
communicates a vast emotional palette that extends from soaring joy (the beautiful piano theme
"Tema di Ada"
) to searing tension (the atonal
"Autunno-1922"
), all crafted with uncommon complexity. Most impressive of all is the opening
"Romanzo,"
which builds from intimate clarinet to orchestral bombast in quintessential
fashion. ~ Jason Ankeny