Yo-Yo Ma plays Ennio Morricone

There are, it has to be said, a plethora of Ennio Morricone compilations and any novice wanting to try out his music won't have difficulty finding one for very little money. For the more seasoned collector, compilations are a slightly more tricky business and the sampling has to have something worth the investment. For Morricone fans, his Cinema Concerto album is well worth hearing, especially for those who have not had the fortune to see the maestro live. However, for something slightly different, Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone is an equally fine album. After the composer and renowned cellist met at the Oscars (when Morricone once again walked away empty handed for his typically great score to Malena), Ma suggested they do an album together and this is the result.

No doubt classical purists will scoff at Ma doing such an album, but for fans of his playing and of Morricone, the album doesn't put a foot wrong. That the arrangements to fit the cello are so effective and effortless is a testament to Morricone's wide ranging skills. He does not instantly give Ma the tune every time, but often makes the cello an additional counter melody, most not found on the original arrangement. A particularly fine example is perhaps the album's most unlikely entry, The Ecstasy of Gold from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Anyone familiar with the original is likely to be baffled as to how it could be transformed to highlight the cello, but by allowing the solo part to bounce between the melody and doing its own thing, Morricone is able to honour the original intention while crafting a refreshing alternative.

Naturally, Morricone's lyrical themes fit naturally into the cello's idiom, but even here it's not just the cello playing the melody, but the composer weaving the cello around the rest of the orchestra. The album is thoughtfully divided up into various suites which segue seamlessly. Hearing the melodies from Cinema Paradiso, Once Upon a Time in the West and America ramped up for maximum sonic luster, or Gabriel's Oboe become Gabriel's Cello, together with less well known, but equally fine Marco Polo and lovely The Lady Caliph (no, I've never heard of it either, but you expect that with Morricone). This album is really an aural wallow where you just soak up Morricone's gorgeous melodies, filtered through Ma's expressive playing, all captured in wildly rich (and probably over lustrous) sonics. Gorgeous.