ENGLISH
This homage to Bernard Herrmann stands above the average Italian and international productions thanks to Carla Marciano’s honest and personal attachment to the author’s evocative soundtracks: the classics of Alfred Hitchock (“Marnie”, “Psycho”, “Vertigo”), Brian De Palma (“Obsession”) or Martin Scorsese (“Taxi Driver”).
Such an enthralling and passionate record could not but derive from powerful childhood emotions that demanded a mature rearrangement. Emotions aroused by the masterful combination of music and images depicting the frantic alternation of human passions, typical of the aforementioned masterpieces.
Carla Marciano’s rearrangement is exemplary, and the music is spellbinding. Through her typical magnetic sound and convulsive phrasing, she renovates the charm of the movie themes without being dominated by them, but rather impressing the mark of her mature personality.
Over the course of this intense journey through Herrmann’s scores, her tutelary deity is John Coltrane, whose significance in the saxophonist’s training is well-known. This is particularly clear in “Theme From Marnie (Prelude)” and “Theme From Vertigo (Scene d’Amour)” which are expanded for improvisation and overwhelm you like a river in flood, in a vortex of melodic variations and rhythmic figurations.
At other times, the reinvention takes different connotations, adding new parts to the basic theme, changing the harmonic system without altering the melodic charm (“Theme from Taxi Driver”) or adding original compositions with a free imprint (“From Marnie to Twisted Nerve” ). At the end of the album is a bonus track paying homage to John Williams, author of the Harry Potter soundtrack, whose theme is redesigned in a modal form with clear references to Coltrane.
Carla Marciano’s stable partners palpitate in unison, sharing the splendor of the work.