After 20 years together, France’s The Ciné-Trio are making their UK debut, touching down at Brighton Fringe with a range of cinematic musical arrangements performed by Philippe Barbey-Lallia on piano, Cyril Baleton on violin and Timothée Oudinot on oboe.
We went to Thursday’s show, which was dedicated to Ennio Morricone and featured some of the late (and unquestionably great) Italian composer’s most famous compositions for cinema, as well as some of his lesser known works.
The trio reinterpreted the evocative works of the prolific maestro, whose filmic scores garnered global recognition with his compositions for 60s Westerns right up to work for some of Hollywood’s most famed directors, so no mean feat at all. The venue for this show – and the group’s subsequent performances – was the Wagner Hall and Fig Tree Garden, discreetly tucked away in the centre of Brighton, also no mean feat.
The highly skilled musicians (they met at Paris’ Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique) are also personable performers, adept at distilling the essence of Morricone’s epic themes. Projected still images from the relevant movies appear behind them as they play, adding visual prompts and a touch of nostalgia.
This worked particularly well alongside the ‘Love Theme’ from the classic Cinema Paradiso, the superbly executed ‘Chi Mai’ from The Professional and ‘Man with a Harmonica’ from Once Upon a Time in the West ‘, leading up to the grand finale of ‘The Ecstasy of Gold’ from Sergio Leone’s spaghetti Western The Good the Bad and the Ugly.
The trio gave an immersive and intimate performance that consistently elicited heartfelt and warm applause from the audience. A superb production at a great hidden gem of a venue.
By Maxwell Fuller
If you’d like the chance to experience The Ciné-Trio‘s film music adaptations for yourselves, they’ve got a few more performances coming up this weekend: the music of John Williams (Star Wars, E.T.) on Friday 26th May, French Composers for the Silver Screen on Saturday 27th May, Made in Asia on Sunday 28th May and Cartoons, a concert for kids, on Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th May.
Recent Comments