As we celebrated the maestro’s 90th birthday at the end of 2018, on November 10, I think it is fair to say that we live in Ennio Morricone’s world. As a composer, over the last sixty years, he has swept us all up. He has reached us. Touched our hearts and our souls. Transported us. Taken us on adventures. There is something so intimate and personal in his music that all Morricone fans can sense. It leaves us feeling a unique and profound connection to these scores. A bond with the maestro himself. The beauty of the music, and the melodies, is almost spiritual. It goes beyond music. Beyond the notes. His music is transcendental. I have always been aware of this, and this awareness has only intensified with time.

I have wanted to record an album that highlights this aspect and that really reveals the way I feel about the maestro’s music. To express this in the way I wanted to, it needed to be very personal. My vision would not involve a symphony orchestra but instead speak to the heart of the music itself and the melodies as directly as possible. To reveal them. What I heard in my mind was flute and piano. How many of our favorite Morricone melodies have been introduced this way? To be sure, the maestro’s orchestrations have included voices and choruses of all imaginable varieties, not to mention bells, har­monicas, whips and guns … whistles, guitars and trumpets, strings, winds and percussion!

To distill the Morricone sound down to just two musicians and have any chance of doing so successfully,I neede d two absolute masters musicians who, themselves, would transcend the music. To perform not just the notes but to find the soul of what is on the page. I want to feel the music more than hear it. That’s what I get from Morricone and what I wanted to explore in the new recording. They needed to share that passion for this music and I wanted to hear it in the performance.

Creating the program for these two extraordinary musicians to take us on a journey through Ennio Morricone’s six-decade-long career allowed me to be daring and demanding in my selections. Simone himself handled the transcriptions of the material and did so in a way that would truly challenge them both as virtuosos, immediately establishing the level we were hoping to attain. The music of Ennio Morricone gives us some of the most beautiful melodies that have ever been composed for film, but this is by no means just a collection of love themes or beautiful melodies. This is iconic, beloved music but also serious repertoire that shows the range and diversity of the master. All hyperbole aside, it truly takes us on an epic journey. So many styles are explored that the techniques required from both Sara and Simone turned Cinema Morricone into a masterclass of flute and piano performance. All in service to the art and artistry of the maestro’s timeless music.

These recordings represent our collective offerings of some of our favorite film music. There are scores represented here that are on everyone’s list of favorites. But there are others that are more personal and may introduce cer­tain pieces to even the most devoted Morricone aficionado. That said, and speaking as someone who has known these scores for the better part of my lifetime, I have never heard them like this. Every selection took me someplace I have never been before and did not want to leave. My first listen to the mixed selections, in album sequence, left me hypnotized and with tears in my eyes. This recording soars beyond what I even dared to dream for this album to achieve. I hope that you may share some of these feelings.

Cinema Morricone: An Intimate Celebration is available on Sony Classical
https://sonyclassical.lnk.to/CinemaMorricone