Original released on LP RCA TBL1 1221
(ITALIA, October 1976)
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. "Novecento" 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 Morricone fashion. As bonus theme, you can find here the vocal version of the main theme, by Herbert Pagani.