Various Composers - Cinema Memories (Marco Serino; Leandro Piccioni)

Information

• Ennio Morricone - Cinema Suite
• Leonard Bernstein - Suite from West Side Story
• John Williams - Three Pieces from Schindler’s List
• Nino Rota - Un diavolo sentimentale. Improvviso per violino e pianoforte
• Myroslav Skoryk - Melody in A Minor
• Ennio Morricone - Canone inverso

Marco Serino, violin

Leandro Piccioni, piano

Date: 2025

Label: Arcana

-----------------------------------------------------------

Description

Towards the end of the 1980s, Ennio Morricone began to rework some of his more famous works for the cinema and television, turning them into genuine ‘suites’ for performance not only in concert halls, but also in arenas and stadiums. Some of these suites bear the names of the great directors with whom he had worked; others were named after the titles of the films or TV series he set to music. Over the years, whether motivated by specific commissions or prompted by his esteem and affection for various musicians, Morricone subjected his concert suites to further revision, thereby creating the versions for solo instrument and orchestra. It is from this continual process of rethinking that the works for violin and orchestra were born, recorded complete by Marco Serino on the two albums Cinema Suites and Cinema Rarities, after the violinist had played them for a couple of decades with Morricone himself conducting. As the composer’s biographer Alessandro De Rosa perceptively comments in the liner notes to the above-mentioned albums, in those suites the violin does not merely limit itself to “singing” the celebrated main themes. On the contrary, it often enters into a dialogue with those same themes through refined counterpoint—as if the mature Morricone were not only reflecting on his past output but also, more generally, musing on his own identity as a composer. An intense connection with memory, time, and nostalgia is shared by the five pieces that make up the Cinema Suite for violin and piano, here recorded for the first time [tracks 1–5]. The works included—all extraordinarily evocative and justly acclaimed—are the principal theme from Lolita (1997) by Adrian Lyne, the immensely popular “Deborah’s Theme” from Once Upon a Time in America (1984), and a trio of pieces associated with his friend Giuseppe Tornatore, drawn from The Legend of 1900 (1998) and Cinema Paradiso (1988).

Considered one of the most successful musicals of all time, West Side Story made its debut on Broadway in 1957 before coming to the big screen in 1961. The film, directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, won as many as ten Oscars, including that for Best Film (an all-time record for a filmed musical), while the soundtrack by Leonard Bernstein was also awarded a Grammy. The music written for the theatrical work generated a rich history of arrangements, and as early as 1960 Bernstein had extracted an orchestral suite, the Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, which became one of his most popular compositions. In the last few decades, some of the leading violinists of our time—Joshua Bell, Sarah Chang, and Daniel Hope—have performed, both in concert and on disc, various arrangements for violin and orchestra in which the solo part is called upon to convey the spirit of the musical’s characters. A similar approach is also found in the arrangement for violin and piano made in 1993 by the Brazilian composer Raimundo Penaforte, on which the present recording is partly based [tr. 6–9]. The version given here differs, however, by offering a different selection of pieces, including the original Prologue (which precedes the celebrated Mambo), and by replacing I Feel Pretty with Maria, one of the musical’s iconic numbers. As proposed by Serino and Piccioni, the Suite had a long gestation: both during the recording and, above all, throughout the rehearsals and concerts that preceded it, the two musicians gradually revised the text until it achieved its definitive form.

Often viewed as the soul of Jewish music, the violin is the central instrument of the moving soundtrack composed by John Williams for Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece Schindler’s List (1993). With this score, Williams won both his fifth Oscar and a Grammy. Unlike many of his works, in which imposing sonorities are a predominant feature, this score stands out for its essential qualities. Here the touching violin solos are blended with delicate orchestral textures in such a way as to express with deep intensity the pain and suffering experienced by the Jewish people during their persecution. To compose the music, Williams collaborated with the renowned Israeli violinist Itzhak Perlman, who was accompanied by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in the original recording. In the present programme, Serino and Piccioni perform the Three Pieces [tr. 10–12] that the composer arranged for violin and piano: the main theme, which stands for Schindler and his list and, by extension, all the Jews saved thanks to him; Remembrances, a complementary theme linked to memory and the inner reawakening of hitherto dormant images and feelings; and Jewish Town, a dramatic lament that acts as a backdrop to the procession of the workers of Schindler’s factory.

Composed in 1969, Un diavolo sentimentale [tr. 13] by Nino Rota is the only piece in the programme not drawn from the cinema repertoire. It has been included as a tribute to the central role that the Milanese composer played in the history of film, particularly in the 1960s, when he composed some of the most famous soundtracks for Fellini’s films. Rota initially gave it the simple title Improvviso per violino e pianoforte and dedicated it to the Neapolitan violinist and teacher Alberto Curci. At the time of the dedication, Curci, born in 1886, was over eighty, so the piece can surely be viewed as a homage to his long career in the service of music as a violinist, composer, teacher, and publisher. The first part of the title, referring to “A Sentimental Devil,” was added by Rota only after the work was first published, but its meaning was never clarified. According to the musicologist Dinko Fabris, it can most likely be explained as a double reference: on the one hand to Curci’s personality; on the other (and perhaps chiefly) to the character of the violin itself, an instrument with a long tradition of associations with the devil. It is a typical Rota work, one that perfectly matches the soundscape the composer cultivated from the 1950s onwards, not only in his famous film scores but also in his works for the theatre and in his orchestral and chamber music.

Another little-known gem is the Melody in A minor by Ukrainian composer Myroslav Skoryk. Originally written for flute and piano, the piece was created for Vysokyy pereval (The High Pass, 1981) by Vladimir Denisenko, a Soviet film set in Galicia in east-central Europe in the aftermath of the Second World War. In the course of time, however, it has become a genuine spiritual anthem for Ukraine and is now regularly performed in concerts and often broadcast on national radio and TV. Serino discovered the piece in 2022, thanks to three Ukrainian students—Anfisa, Ivan, and Olga—whom he welcomed into his violin class at the Conservatory of Trento following the Russian invasion in February of that year. This track [tr. 14] is dedicated to them, a symbol of solidarity and freedom which Serino presents in the arrangement for violin made by the composer himself.

Drawn from Ricky Tognazzi’s film of the same name (2000), the music composed by Ennio Morricone for Making Love is already featured on the album Cinema Suites, where Serino and Piccioni perform the original version for violin, piano, and orchestra. Two of those pieces, however, return here in a new transcription made by Piccioni, who incorporated some of the orchestral sections into his own part [tr. 15–16]. As it turned out, the Finale di un concerto romantico interrotto—representing the final scene in which the Nazis break into the concert hall to arrest the two young Jewish musicians—has acquired further poignancy in the present recording: a painfully symbolic omen anticipating Piccioni’s untimely and unexpected death, which occurred shortly after the album was recorded.

— Massimo Privitera & Marco Serino

-----------------------------------------------------------

Ennio Morricone (10 November 1928 – 6 July 2020) was an Italian composer, conductor and musician widely regarded as one of the greatest film composers in history. Over a career spanning seven decades, he created more than 400 film and television scores and over 100 classical works. He achieved international fame through his collaborations with director Sergio Leone, notably scoring The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Morricone received numerous honors, including two Oscars, and influenced generations of composers. His innovative, genre-blending style and memorable melodies left a lasting impact on cinema worldwide.

***

Marco Serino graduated from the Santa Cecilia Conservatory and later earned the Premier Prix de Virtuosité at the Geneva Conservatory. In 1990, he founded the Bernini Quartet and joined I Musici. As a soloist and chamber musician, he has collaborated with leading artists and performed with major orchestras and in prestigious venues worldwide. Several distinguished composers have dedicated works to him. Serino has recorded for prominent labels, including Decca and Arcana, and is also a musicologist. He currently teaches at the Trento Conservatory and performs on a 2021 Gonzalo y Bayolo violin.

***

Leandro Piccioni was an Italian composer, pianist and conductor who was educated at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory. He composed soundtracks for several productions, including Soffiantini Kidnapping, The Last Bullet, The Homicide Squad, Assunta Spina, Rebecca the First Wife, In Your Dreams, and The Soul’s Haven, earning the Popular Jury Award at the Lagonegro Film Festival in 2003. A longtime collaborator of Ennio Morricone and director Carmelo Bene, Piccioni performed internationally with leading orchestras. He passed away in 2023 following an infection contracted during a tour in Japan.

-----------------------------------------------------------