"The Ferramonti Legacy", "Battle of Algiers", "The Red Tent", I listen to the programme planning for the "Tribute" to Ennio Morricone. Perhaps not so familiar films and melodies, but then during the course of the conversation I hear "Spiel mir das Lied vom Tod" and an image immediately comes to mind. Deborah's theme is also present in the title "Once Upon a Time in America". "There should be a few classics, but also unknown works," is the concert dramaturgy. Marc Barwisch, Head of Artistic Operations, and Fernando Carmena, Creative Director of the European FilmPhilharmonic Orchestra, are rolling through countless pieces that contain everything that film music has to offer.
Morricone has left behind a huge body of work that reveals an incredible feel for the zeitgeist. He often included sounds as an integral part of his compositions, including in "La classe operaia va in paradiso" (1971), a fascinating score for milling machine noise, solo violin, solo electric guitar and symphony orchestra. The work is also performed in Zurich.
He orchestrated all of his compositions himself and did not leave them to an assistant, "as many of his great film music composer colleagues did", adds Fernando Carmena. "Many of them arranged his works, they didn't always sound like Morricone. That's why it was very important to him throughout his life that he conducted his orchestrated works himself from the 1980s onwards," continues Fernando Carmena. However, they were not published - and so the rumour goes that he always collected the scores after the performances.
The European Film Philharmonic contacted Morricone's son Giovanni and his lawyer in 2022 and was particularly interested in the many works that had not yet been performed. The result is a concert for Zurich that is unique in this form.
"In close consultation with his widow Maria and his son Giovanni, we are presenting compositions that are finally being played in public for the first time. During his lifetime, Morricone was not interested in publishing the material. The family is now doing this and is paying very close attention to what happens to it," says Fernando Carmena. And Marc Barwisch adds: "We don't want to perform a status quo Morricone concert here in the Tonhalle, as we know it from arenas with amplifiers - the setting is intimate, the audience will be very close to his music and thus experience his full diversity."
This diversity also includes the fact that many works were not created in connection with films. This concert will therefore take place without moving images, in keeping with Morricone's aesthetic.
We use deepL.com for our translations into English.
