CD REVIEW - LA SVERGOGNATA/SUGGESTIONATA


La Svergognata/Suggestionata
Music by Berto Pisano/Music by Carlo Savina
Digitmovies CDDM124 (Italy)
20 Tracks 53:45 mins

This pairing of two scores from '70s Italian films largely of an erotic nature features firstly, Berto Pisano's lounge-style score for the 1974 Giuliano Biagetti film La Svergognata, which starred, among others, Barbara Bouchet, and secondly, Carlo Savina's music for the 1978 Alfredo Rizzo film Suggestionata. The former was previously only available as a rare RCA promotional album, whilst the latter makes its debut here, again courtesy of RCA.
Pisano's score features the wonderful voice of Edda Dell'Orso, and it is she who opens the score in a flowing arrangement of the main theme in "Orchestra for Edda." The subsequent "Piano Dreams" features a very different arrangement of the theme, played by bluesy solo piano (another more carefree take on the piece is featured later). Other versions include a slower take on the opening arrangement, prominently featuring Edda again, the second, "Sound for a Child, "more instrumentally dominated. "Voice in the Night" features a more sensual performance by Edda," who doubles with bass flute for the second version and closing track of the score.
The other featured theme is "Free Hammond," heard initially as an easy-going, bass flute and Hammond organ-lead number, but then again later in a livelier, more jazzy version.
It's all very pleasant and relaxing.
Savina's score features a smooth, romantic main theme, with wordless vocal by an unidentified young female, and some very lush string work. The theme, like Pisano's score, dominates, with laid-back poppy arrangements for electric piano and strings largely making up the tracks that follow, though the theme takes on a darker, suspenseful and threatening feel in three of them, and track 19 (there are no track titles) is downright menacing. But, don't fret, the main theme returns, complete with female vocal, to close the score on a satisfactory note.
Quite a different score from that which opens the disc then, still with a lovely melody at its heart, but with a good share of drama too.
As always, a colourful booklet accompanies the disc, with stills and artwork from the films, plus introductory notes by Claudio Fuiano and Pierluigi Valentini. Go to www.digitmovies.com.