Cinema Paradiso, by Ennio Morricone with his son Andrea, arranged by Yamato Quartet, transcribed by Andrea Motas.  

Music from the 1988 Italian film which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, which has been called a “near perfect melding of direction, acting, script, sound track, and cinematography.”  The music magically captures the feelings of nostalgia, love and tenderness. We offer this as a tribute to a giant in the film industry, Ennio Morricone, who died in July of 2020 at the age of 91, and to the beauty and solemnity of the autumn season.

Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67, Mvt. I, Allegro con brio, by Ludwig van Beethoven, arranged by Matthew Hindson.  

In honor of Beethoven’s 250^th birthday, we celebrate with his cornerstone work that begins with perhaps the most recognizable opening theme in the classical music repertoire.

Some have suggested that Beethoven’s inspiration for the opening (often called the “Schicksalis-Motiv” or Fate Motif) was the sound of the Yellowhammer birds that lived in Vienna near his home, fitting to our autumn motif!

Nessun dorma, from Turandot, by Giacomo Puccini, arranged by I. D. Crocker.  

Interest in this aria exploded outside the opera world when Luciano Pavarotti’s 1972 recording of it was used as the theme song of the BBC’s coverage of the 1990 FIFA World Cup.  It became Pavarotti’s signature aria and was featured in the Three Tenors concert that was presented on the eve of the 1990 World Cup Final in Rome.

I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin’, from Porgy and Bess, by George Gershwin (1934), arranged by Jeannette Hirasawa Moore.  Lyrics by DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin.  

Porgy sings this song in Act II, expressing contentment that, as a poor man, he is free from worldly cares, and has all he needs, as he sings, “got my gal, got my Lord, got my song”.  Some notable recordings of this song include those by Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, Pearl Bailey, Diahann Carroll and Frank Sinatra.

Paragon Rag, by Scott Joplin (1909), arranged by William Zinn  

Dubbed “The King of Ragtime,” Scott Joplin was born around 1867 to a former slave father and a free-born mother.  He wrote over 100 ragtime pieces in his brief career as well as a ragtime ballet and two operas.  His early work, The Maple Leaf Rag, is considered the archetypal rag, and although it sold over a million copies, the composer died in poverty.  Joplin’s popularity soared when his compositions were featured on a 1970 million-selling album by pianist Joshua Rifkin, and in the 1973 Robert Redford/Paul Newman film The Sting.  In 1976, Joplin was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize. The Paragon Rag was dedicated to the Colored Vaudeville Benevolent Association, an organization created to support black actors at the beginning of the 20th century.

Generously sponsored by:

Museum of Northern Arizona 

Norma Jean Clifton

Video – Nicholas Geib, Firewatch Media

Audio – Kyle Miller, Lore Audio

Graphics – Heather Brown, Cultural Sponge

Executive Producer – Larry Lang, Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra