Ennio Morricone: The Official Symphonic Experience with the Seattle Symphony
Quite often, when I go to the symphony or the theatre, I can’t help but notice that I’m one of the younger people in attendance… and I’m forty-seven. I’m not exactly young, and that can’t be good for business, so what can be done to attract younger blood to the high arts? The Seattle Symphony, along with some reasonable ticket prices, is banking on creative programming at Benaroya Hall, which this past weekend included Ennio Morricone: The Official Symphonic Experience with the Seattle Symphony.
Threading the needle between gimmick and goal, the Seattle Symphony has succeeded again at striking on something real. This was a genuine exploration of one of the cinema’s greatest and most prolific composers, offering a wide selection of his iconic scores played live to matching images and scenes from their corresponding works presented on a screen above. Led by visiting conductor Thiago Tiberio, the Seattle Symphony executed its usual magic, pulling feeling from the notes on the page to demonstrate the depth of Morricone’s genius. Aside from the anticipated highlights from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, with soaring vocals from Catherine Thornsley, the selection ventured into pieces I was not familiar with, including some of his Italian film catalogue and songs from The Legend of 1900, highlighting the wide range of sounds and genres Morricone was capable of. Hearing this innovative composer’s more traditionally classical compositions played back-to-back with his well-known western sounds, a bossa nova-inspired jaunt, and even the clever spreading of a musical contagion with his soundtrack from The Thing laid bare the boundless nature of his musical mind and the unconventional whistles, clicks, percussions, and twangs he played with in search of what he wanted to hear.
The evening’s music was punctuated by recorded interviews with Morricone as well as many of the storied directors he collaborated with. Along with numerous insightful exchanges and humorous anecdotes, I found the segment concerning his work with Quentin Tarantino on The Hateful Eight particularly telling. Tarantino shamelessly recalls that he gave Morricone no notes and was happy to just let the master cook. While this is surely a reasonable approach to working with such a storied industry legend, I couldn’t help but notice that other directors, who were more involved with guiding Morricone’s scores towards their own vision of the film as a whole, seemed to have inspired him to work at a higher level, resulting in his more memorable creations. Even the greatest can be pushed higher by a greater challenge.
While I have no idea if the creative programming at Benaroya Hall will ultimately draw in those much-sought generations trailing behind my own, I feel that in a better world it would. It should. Their offerings are worthy of the time and attention. Ticket prices start around $40, so cost shouldn’t be locking anyone out. All that aside, I feel very fortunate to have had a seat in a warm and cavernous hall, filled with the wondrous sounds of Ennio Morricone.