Morricone / Rota / Molinelli / Mondelci - Favorite Italian Movie Music (CD)

All Music Guide

The forces involved in this album are pleasingly international: an American label offers an Italian saxophonist playing music of his own country, backed by a famed Russian orchestra with an ArmenianAmerican conductor. It speaks to the growing popularity of the music of Italian film composer Ennio Morricone, which seems to be making the transition from cult object to topic of hip conversation to mainstream repertory constituent. The five Morricone excerpts here, not all of them familiar, work well on the saxophone, especially in the arrangements provided here by composer Roberto Molinelli. Saxophonist Federico Mondelci is an impressive player, with uncannily smooth tone production in legato passages and way of communicating nervous energy in sharper attacks without letting the possibility of jazz sounds run away with the instrument. The Morricone arrangements, with fine, jazzy piano contributions from Russian pianist Basinia Schulman, capture the lowdown, raw quality that makes this com...poser's music so haunting, and the strings of the Moscow Chamber Orchestra have lost none of their sheen. Things drop a notch after that. It is a bit invidious for Molinelli to write himself into a program of "Favorite Italian Movie Music," for his contribution is not movie music at all but rather an original composition that intends to evoke New York City but succeeds in doing so only intermittently. And the music of Nino Rota (whose music for Fellini's films is chosen here over the arguably more freestanding score for The Godfather), arranged by Giovanni Indulti, is less well suited to the saxophone; its traditional string sound is more integral to its structure. Still, this is an unusual find for lovers of the classical saxophone, with fine sonics from Delos. - James Manheim, All Music Guide Read more Less