Favorite Music
Give me a laundry list and I’ll set it to music. —Gioacchino Rossini
When listening to songs, I tend not to notice the lyrics. (Not to mention that memorizing them is way beyond me. The only song whose lyrics I can safely claim to know by heart is “Happy Birthday to You.”) It means that I could easily see myself enjoying a national anthem of an obscure country or a sacred song to resurrect the dead as much as I would enjoy a cheesy Carole Bayer Sager tune. And it means that to me the pieces from The Sound of Music would be as enjoyable had Oscar Hammerstein II written his lyrics in any other language. Well, except German, perhaps. Quoting the Kappelmeister from Amadeus (1984), “German is—scusate—too bruta for singing.”
CURRENT FAVORITE
- David Foster and Walter Afanasieff’s “Io ci sarò” (performed by Andrea Bocelli featuring Lang Lang) from The Best of Andrea Bocelli: Vivere (2007)
ALBUMS
- Jose Carreras—Passion (1996)
- Celine Dion—These Are Special Times (1998)
- A Touch of David Foster (1999)
- Christina Aguilera—Mi Reflejo (2000)
- Sarah Brightman—Classics (2001)
- Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone (2004)
MOVIE SCORES
- Ennio Morricone’s in C’era una volta il West (1968)
- John Barry’s in Out of Africa (1985)
- Ennio Morricone’s in The Mission (1986)
- Ennio Morricone’s in Nuovo cinema Paradiso (1989)
- Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman’s in The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
- Ennio Morricone’s in La leggenda del pianista sull’oceano (1998)
- Ennio Morricone’s in Malèna (2000)
- Howard Shore’s in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
- Dario Marianelli’s in Atonement (2007)
MOVIE SONGS
- Jerome Kern’s “The Way You Look Tonight” from Swing Time (1936)
- Harold Arlen’s “Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz (1939)
- Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” from Holiday Inn (1942)
- Jimmy Van Heusen’s “All the Way” from The Joker Is Wild (1957)
- John Williams’s “Can You Read My Mind” from Superman (1978)
- Dave Grusin’s “It Might Be You” from Tootsie (1982)
- Jack Nitzsche and Buffy Sainte-Marie’s “Up Where We Belong” from An Officer and a Gentleman (1982)
- James Horner and Barry Mann’s “Somewhere Out There” from An American Tail (1986)
- Peter Cetera and David Foster’s “Glory of Love” from The Karate Kid, Part II (1986)
- Alan Menken’s “Beauty and the Beast” from Beauty and the Beast (1991)
- Alan Menken’s “A Whole New World” from Aladdin (1992)
- Alan Menken’s “Go the Distance” from Hercules (1997)
- Matthew Wilder’s “Reflection” from Mulan (1998)
- Randy Newman’s “When She Loved Me” from Toy Story 2 (1999)
- Patrick Cassidy’s “Vide Cor Meum” from Hannibal (2001)
- John Williams’s “For Always” from Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001)
- Alan Menken’s “So Close” from Enchanted (2007)
OTHER PIECES (selected)
- “Lascia ch’io pianga” from Handel’s Rinaldo
- “Air” from Bach’s Orchestral Suite no. 3
- “Laudate Dominum” from Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de confessore
- “Che soave zeffiretto” from Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro—used in The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
- Mozart’s “Ave verum corpus”
- Franz Schubert’s “Ave Maria”
- “Una furtiva lagrima” from Gaetano Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore—used in Match Point (2005)
- “Il dolce suono” from Gaetano Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor—used in The Fifth Element (1997)
- “Intermezzo” from Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana—used in Raging Bull (1980)
- “Ebben? Ne andrò lontana” from Alfredo Catalani’s La Wally
- “Méditation” from Jules Massenet’s Thaïs
- Adagio Sostenuto from Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto no. 2
- Adagio from Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Symphony no. 2
- “Quando me’n vo” from Giacomo Puccini’s La bohème
- “Mia gelosa!” from Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca
- “O mio babbino caro” from Giacomo Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi—used in Mr. Bean’s Holiday (2007)
- “Nessun dorma” from Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot—used in Mar adentro (2004)
- “Someone to Watch over Me” from George Gershwin’s Oh, Kay!
- “Embraceable You” from George Gershwin’s Girl Crazy
- Herman Hupfeld’s “As Time Goes By”—used in Casablanca (1942)
- Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America”
- “They Say It’s Wonderful” from Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun—used in Spider-Man 3 (2007)
- Victor Young’s “When I Fall in Love”—used in Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005)
- Arthur Hamilton’s “Cry Me A River”—used in V for Vendetta (2005)
- Du Fen’s “Qing ren de yan lei”—used in ‘94 du bi dao zhi qing (1994)
- “Maria” from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story
- “Edelweiss” from Richard Rodgers’s The Sound of Music
- “All I Ask of You” from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera
- “With One Look” from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard
- Francesco Sartori’s “Con te partirò”—used in the TV series The Sopranos
COMPOSERS
- David Foster (1949-)
- Ennio Morricone (1928-)
PERFORMERS
- Céline Dion (1968-)
- José Carreras (1946-)
- Yo-Yo Ma (1955-)
- Sarah Brightman (1960-)
