ONCE UPON A TIME: HEARING ENNIO MORRICONE

Morricone conducting

When I learned of Ennio Morricone’s death, I was drawn back to an evening more than five years ago, in February 2015, when I was taken to see him conducting his music at London’s O2 Arena. I hadn’t been there since commentating for BBC at the 2012 Olympic basketball finals, and I was pushing my friend’s wheelchair to a premium spot not far from where my commentary position actually had been. Down to my left, where the seats reserved for athletes had been, and where, above them, my son and his grandfather had watched to see what I actually did for work, was where Morricone conducted the Czech National Orchestra and Hungary’s Kodaly Chorus, something like 150 musicians crowding the vast stage.

Then 86 years old and looking frail after injuring his back some months before, Morricone seemed to take on the energy which his music embraced, in the ways that only fantasy can bring truly to life. The concert was, of course, not titled ‘My Life In Film Music’, but simply ‘My Life In Music’.

I had written about Morricone, though not nearly enough, in two of my books, one about Sergio Leone and the other Clint Eastwood, and he touched on those remarkable western collaborations in the first set, which began with The Untouchables and moved immediately into Deborah’s Theme from Once Upon A Time In America: it’s a haunting melody that invites nostalgia, but…