MANUEL DE SICA (b.1949): Concerto for Violin and Strings, Filmusic for Piano and Strings, Il giardino dei Finzi Contini for Orchestra, Una breve vacanza for Viola and Strings, Kojiki for Harp and Strings, In memoriam for Strings.

Description: Yes, he's the son of the world-famous Italian film director Vittorio and he wrote the Oscar-nominated score for 1970's "The Garden of the Finzi Continis" when he was only 21. That score has been transmuted into a 19-minute orchestral rhapsody here and the main motif from the 1973 film "A Brief Vacation" has been clothed as a brief piece for viola and strings. The rest of this 79-minute disc is also packed with affecting, attractively scored music; it's not film music and, pace the ironical title of the three-movement piano concerto, much of it doesn't sound like film-music (although some of it does, especially the Bernard Herrmannesque In memoriam). What it is is an incredible bargain for lovers of film scores and for lovers of emotionally communicative orchestral music. Maristella Patuzzi (violin), Michelangelo Carbonara (piano), Anna Serova (viola), Floraleda Scacchi (harp), Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini; Flavio Emilio Scogna.