The Underground of Happiness

So, me and Ennio on Valentine’s Day (for which a huge thanks to my wife, a most magnanimous gesture on her part, you might even say a bromantic one). I’m in general wary about film music taken out of context but those doubts are suspended when it comes to Il Maestro. He didn’t just compose the music, after all, he also arranged and orchestrated all the parts in most cases, plus here he is conducting the whole shebang as well. And it really was something to witness the power of about 130 souls on stage (the size of the audience at many greast gigs I've seen) harnessed in this way - two Hungarian choirs, 75 strong, the balance made up of the superb Czech National Symphony Orchestra. Maybe not the full scope of his work was on show (the programme was light on the dreamier end of his back catalogue, and sadly absent were the sumptuous psychedelic wig outs) but a fair spread was presented, from the lyrical or romantic (Tornatore) to the strident galloping rhythms of those ...