Rome-born film composer Ennio Morricone has more than 350 film scores to his name. His concert hall music is not as well known. In this disc the two worlds meet in a surprising and not always totally agreeable way. The Cadenza for solo flute and magnetic tape sounds decidedly exotic - a step onwards from Griffes' Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan..The Four Studies (1980s) for solo piano are tougher going and alternate crepuscular sounds bedecked in atonal colours with rushes and storms which reminded me of the pianola music of Conlon Nancarrow. The Rag in Frantumi (piano) (1986) is more of the same although the rushes are potsherds of ragtime convulsions. Challenging and not at all in Morricone's accustomed style of honeyed romance.

That oxymoronic vein of sorrowing/joyous romance asserts itself in the last four tracks - arrangements for flute and piano of his film music. These all link with music he wrote for films between 1969 and 1979. Per le Antiche Scale muses in Poulencian purity, with hints of Fauré and Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. L'Ereditta Ferramoniti is a perfect little nostalgic reflection, as is the musing Allonsanfan/Il Prato. Mosè is the song of a rather morose poet which in the piano voice links across to the peppery concert works which take up the first 6 tracks on the disc.

The performances seem dedicated, accomplished and fully engaged by the music. The notes are fine but regrettably are not a complete translation of the original Italian text. A disc for venturesome Morricone fans although it yields Dresden fragile charms for others.