LA CALIFFA

ENNIO MORRICONE

Rating:

Original Review: Over the last few years, producers Claudio Fuiano and Gianni Dell'Orso of the Italian soundtrack label Screen Trax have been quietly re-issuing many long forgotten scores and exporting them overseas to folks like me who would otherwise never have the opportunity to hear the excellent music. Their latest title is La Califfa, or The Caliph, a 1970 score written by the legendary Ennio Morricone. Prior to this CD dropping through my letterbox, I had never even heard of the film, let alone seen it or heard the score, but I can tell you now - it's gorgeous.

The film was directed by Alberto Bevilacqua and starred Ugo Tognazzi and Romy Schneider, and appears to be some kind of love story. The liner notes do make some kind of attempt to describe the plot of the movie - but, unfortunately, the writer's English is a little - shall we say - confused. The following is an exact reproduction. Make of it what you will. "In the Emilia country, the nick-name Califfa is given to an unprejudiced and volitive woman. The Lady Caliph hates Doberḍ, owner of the factory in which her husband did work before to be killed during a riot by the police. Then she learns to extimate him and the two ones become lovers. But at the end Doberḍ'll be murdered by killers sent by other industrialists against which he drew up for the love of the Lady Caliph."

On a serious note, this person's English is far better than my Italian, and I apologise for poking fun at his faltering attempts at note-writing. This issue aside, nothing can detract from the excellence of Morricone's music, which contains what must surely be one of the most attractive love themes of his entire career. Following on from the rather stark opening, 'Sangue Sull'asfalto', is the first performance of the glorious theme for 'La Califfa'. Beautiful, carefree, but infused with a real sense of passion, the sweeping string and oboe melody rises to the rafters. It bears a few similarities to the theme he would compose a decade or so later for The Mission, but nevertheless leaves a striking impression, and receives several superb recapitulations in 'Notturno' and the ten-minute 'La Califfa Suite'.

The secondary theme for Doberḍ is first heard in 'La Donna Al Fiume', and is easily identifiable by the rhapsodic piano that accompanies the orchestral melody. Additional performances of the Doberḍ theme in 'Ricordi Di Un Amico' and 'La Donna e La Campagna' reach glorious heights, while other cues of note include the superb re-orchestration of the main theme for voice and celeste in 'Sotto La Pioggia' and 'Prima e Dopo L'Amore', both of which remind me very much of Wojciech Kilar's score for The Portrait of a Lady. The reverent organ solos in 'La Pace Interiore' and 'Trittico Per Organo' are also worth a mention, but unfortunately suffer a little due to sonic limitations and a little distortion of sound. Unsurprisingly for a Morricone score, there are also some rather disturbing moments of dissonance and atonality, with 'Requiem Per Un Operaio' pushing the boundaries of vocal work, and 'Dentro La Macchina' weaving together discordant piano chords and stark string phrases over the course of its three minute length.

This "definitive edition" is the third CD release of La Califfa, after the original Alhambra release a decade ago and the expanded Japanese SLC release in 1998, and Morricone fans are urged to seek it out. I readily admit that I have never been a huge fan of Morricone's work, having never fully come to grips with the Italian maestro's unconventional orchestration techniques and comparative lack of straightforwardness. Much to my own surprise, La Califfa enraptured me from the first moments, and has since quickly elevated itself to near the top of the 40 or so Morricone scores I have heard to date.

Track Listing: Running Time: 52 minutes 55 seconds

Screen Trax CDST-323 (1970/2000)

Music composed and conducted by Ennio Morricone. Orchestrations by Ennio Morricone. Score produced by Ennio Morricone. Album produced by Claudio Fuiano and Gianni Dell'Orso.

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