Morricone's soloists

Often overlooked in the clamour surrounding Ennio Morricone and his performances are some of the outstanding classically-trained soloists from the Roma Sinfonietta Orchestra that play key roles in bringing to life the music of the Maestro during his live concerts and on CD. The orchestra was founded in 1993 and have collaborated with Morricone for the last 12 years, performing in some of the best theatres in the world. The two know each other and trust each other to deliver and the London Apollo concerts this weekend did exactly that. Morricone is quick to identify and share the applause with his main soloists during his performances and three stood out for me, amongst the cream of the orchestra, at the concert on Friday evening. They were leading violinist Marco Serino (pictured top left), flutist Monica Berni (pictured right) and Carlo Romano on oboe (pictured bottom left). Serino, part of the celebrated Quartetto Bernini in Italy, was called upon to display his highly-tuned skills during the second part of the programme for Deborah's Theme from Once Upon A Time in America and Vatel. Monica Berni accompanied Morricone on his two previous visits to England in 2001 and 2003 and is his leading flutist during The Mission and elsewhere in the programme, while Carlo Romano has been a fixture, on oboe, with the Maestro for the last twenty-five years, and is the man behind the haunting Gabriel's Oboe. Both Berni and Romano were part of the Rai TV Orchestra for many years in Rome and are accredited soloists on many CD collaborations with Morricone such as his joint release with Dulce Pontes called Focus. You can visit Romano's website here.