Once Upon a Time: The Essential Ennio Morricone Film Music Collection [Soundtrack]

Ennio Morricone (Composer), Paul Bateman (Conductor, Performer), Derek Wadsworth (Conductor), Nic Raine (Conductor), James Fitzpatrick (Conductor), Kenneth Alwyn (Conductor), David Temple (Conductor), City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra (Orchestra), Jill Washington (Performer), Charlotte Kinder (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Paul Bateman, Jill Washington, Charlotte Kinder
• Orchestra: City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra
• Conductor: Paul Bateman, Derek Wadsworth, Nic Raine, James Fitzpatrick, Kenneth Alwyn, et al.
• Composer: Ennio Morricone
• Audio CD (October 5, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: Silva America
• ASIN: B0002V4YTU
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #161,554 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "his domain of film scoring is legendary ~ Ennio Morricone", October 7, 2004

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J. Lovins "Mr. Jim" (Missouri-USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Once Upon a Time: The Essential Ennio Morricone Film Music Collection (Audio CD)

Silva America once again has outdone themselves with "Once Upon A Time:The Essential Ennio Morricone Film Music Collection", a double disc collection worth their weight in GOLD! ~ Morricone creates visual moods for each film he scores...action, adventure, mystery, romance, sentimental and suspense...the list could go on.

Ennio Morricone was born in Rome on October 11, 1928...attended the Santa Cecilia Conservatory...worked in various jazz bands, later a staff arranger and composer...an orchestrator in the '50s...scored films in the early '60s, then the WESTERNS and his name became a household word in the film industry ~ a new kind of western was on the horizon and Morricone was commissioned to score "A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS" [1964] for Sergio Leone featuring Clint Eastwood, spaghetti westerns were born ~ next "FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE" [1965] ~ and a bigger budget film "THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY" [1966], again featuring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and a third Eli Wallach whose performance was magical to watch on the big screen ~ violence and revenge gives Morricone an opportunity to feature electric guitars, flutes and jew's harp blending with a non lyrical chorus mixed with brass, strings, percussion with full orchestration that simply took your breath away...example is "ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST" [1968], featuring Henry Fonda, Claudia Cardinale, Jason Robards and our hero Charles Bronson the mysterious harmonica player, director Sergio Leone's tribute to the American Western, pulled out all the stops ~ the Western was just a small part of Maestro Morricone's career, in the next paragraph take a gander of just what our icon of film music accomplished.

Our composer didn't stop there as "ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA" [1984], featuring Robert De Niro, James Woods and Elizabeth McGovern, another Sergio Leone film..."THE MISSION" [1986], featuring Robert De Niro, Jeremy Irons and Aldan Quinn, is probably one of Morricone's crowning scores receiving an Academy Award nomination, very haunting and classical genre in substance..."THE UNTOUCHABLES" [1987], featuring Kevin Costner, Sean Connery and Robert De Niro during the Al Capone '30s crime organization, Morricone conjures a powerful and dynamic arrangement of his unmistakable theme..."CINEMA PARADISO" [1988], featuring Phillippe Noiret, Antonella Attili and Pupella Maggio from director Giuseppe Tomatore as he recalls his early childhood, the score immediately captures your heart, so tender and compelling as Morricone can only deliver.

City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra featuring conductors Kenneth Alwyn, Paul Bateman, James Fitzpatrick, Nic Raine, Derek Wadsworth ~ Crouch End Festival Chorus featuring Choir Master David Temple ~ vocals performed by Charlotte Kinder, Marie Kopecka and Jill Washington ~ guitar, percussion and keyboards performed by Gareth Williams ~ all in all did a magnicent job in bringing the music of a composer who wrote for over 250 films, receiving recognition from the industry and fans which was long over-due ~ his work is in constant demand, scoring as many as over a half dozen films as year.

This collection contains an overlay of each cue in Morricone's distinctive style of legendary scoring ~ the man who made this possible, a tremendous asset to every project he undertakes is James Fitzpatrick [producer of the album] ~ symphonic suites with full orchestra fullfilling the "film-score-buffs" cravings for more of the same, just the way we like 'em!

Total Time: 2-CD-Set ~ Silva America 1165 ~ (10/05/2004)

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellence!, April 21, 2007

By 

tjguitar - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Once Upon a Time: The Essential Ennio Morricone Film Music Collection (Audio CD)

These recordings range back to 1994, with a number of tracks being from Silva Screen's "Music from the Films of Clint Eatwood" compilation, with Derek Wadsworth conducting the City of Prague Philharmonic.

Those tracks are: "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly", "A Fistful of DOllars", "For a Few Dollars More", and "Two Mules for Sister Sara". "In The Line Of Fire' also appeared on that CD, performed electronically by Mark Ayres.


The next bunch of tracks is from Silva Screen's 1996 compilation, "Cinema Paradise: The Classic Film Music of Ennio Morricone", which included the majority of tracks here such as the extensive The Mission Suite, The Untouchables, Casulaties of War, Once Upon a Time In America, 1900, Chi Mai, Marco Polo, Once Upon a Time In The West (two tracks), Cinema Paradise, and The Good the Bad and the Ugly - Ecstacy of Gold, mostly being conducted by Paul Bateman, with Nic Raine doing some of the conducting duties as well.

Hamlet is from Silva's 1997 "Cinema's Classic Romances" compilation, while "The Thing" is from Silva's 2001 "Essential John Carpenter".

A Fistful of Dynamite - Duck You Sucker is from 2002's Way Out West: Essential Western Film Music Collection Volume Two.

The remaing tracks were newly recorded in 2004 for this release:
Days of Heaven, Exorcist II, Guns for San Sebastian, Moses the Lawgiver, My Name is Nobody, The Five Man Army, The Red Tent, The Men From Shiloh and The Sicilian Clan.

Highly recommended.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Once Upon a Time... The Essential Ennio Morricone, March 26, 2009

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C. A. Luster "The Rook" (Burke, VA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Once Upon a Time: The Essential Ennio Morricone Film Music Collection (Audio CD)

I swear these sound exactly like the original soundtracks. Listen for yourself and good luck discerning if they aren't. I think I have a pretty good ear for it as being a movie buff for years I think music is a key part of making a movie a hit or not. Furthermore music is what often helps make a movie a classic. Would the movie Casablanca been as good without "As Time Goes By" and the rest of the great music in the movie? This two CD set includes most of Ennio Morricones greatest works. I highly recommend it. The City of Prague Orchestra, conductors, and singers make this a memorable experience. Great quality CDs with great replayability.

CA Luster