Broxton Comment-MB-008-84

UNA BREVE STAGIONE [BRIEF SEASON] (1969)

Una Breve Stagione is an Italian romantic drama written and directed by Renato Castellani. The film stars Christopher Jones as Johnny, a young American who lives in Rome and works as a stockbroker. Johnny meets and quickly falls for a pretty young Swedish girl named Luisa (Pia Degermark), who works as a translator, and they embark on a passionate love affair. However, Johnny is doing some risky and potentially dangerous financial things at work on behalf of some important clients, the fallout of which threatens the new relationship almost before it as begun.

The score for Una Breve Stagione sees Morricone embracing his romantic side, no more so than in the opening titular song, a soft, gentle, idyllic piece for voices, guitars, and percussion backed with strings, and which contains a lovely interlude duet for piano and oboe. Subsequent such as “Fregene No.3,” “Postludio,” “Solamente Amore No.1,” and the lovely “Un Bagaglio Alle Spalle” revisit this style to excellent effect, often adopting a charming light renaissance style.

To capture the intensity of Johnny’s descent into the world of financial crimes, Morricone wrote a few darker and more driving action/drama pieces that are much more intense than one might expect. “Inseguimento No.1” is a piece of unexpectedly threatening, urgent writing for a thundering combo featuring strings, harpsichord, and driving percussion that is quite superb; later, cues like “Interludio No.1,” “Preludio A Una Telefonaca,” and “Suoni Per I Ricordi” revisit the same underlying rhythms with different instrumentals, and some them even manage to combine them with some hints of the romantic themes, illustrating the collision between the two worlds. The conclusive “Inseguimento No.3” is a wild rock arrangement of the dramatic rhythms, with an especially vivid choral element, which really ends the score on a high note.

Una Breve Stagione is a fun score which gets plenty of mileage out of its two recurring central ideas, and is certainly worth checking out for Morricone fans who enjoy his more driving, insistent style. The only CD release of the score for Una Breve Stagione is on a 2-for-1 album from Legend Music, coupled with the score for the 1972 film La Violenza Quinto Potere, aka The Sicilian Checkmate; it’s a re-release of the original 1969 vinyl LP release from Sagittario.

Track Listing: 1. Una Breve Stagione (2:35), 2. Inseguimento No.1 (1:24), 3. Fregene No.3 (1:06), 4. Interludio No.1 (1:18), 5. Postludio (1:34), 6. Solamente Amore No.1 (1:02), 7. Interludio No.2 (0:57), 8. Solamente Amore No.1 (3:47), 9. Un Bagaglio Alle Spalle (1:37), 10. Preludio A Una Telefonaca (2:03), 11. Fregene No.2 (1:08), 12. Suoni Per I Ricordi (3:44), 13. Inseguimento No.2 (1:15), 14. Prima Del Suicidio No.1 (0:47), 15. Fregene No.1 (1:43), 16. Prima Del Suicidio No.2 (0:59), 17. Inseguimento No.3 (2:59). Legend CD26, 30 minutes 16 seconds.

latest webpage

Email to me

VIP

Payment