Morricone: In search of an Oscar

Morricone has been nominated for an Oscar five times

Legendary Italian film composer Ennio Morricone has spoken of his disappointment at never having won an Oscar - particularly for his work on the 1986 film, The Mission.

The 72-year-old maestro - best-known for his scores to the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone - has been nominated by the Academy five times.

Morricone film scores

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - 1966

For a Few Dollars More - 1967

Once Upon a Time in the West - 1969

The Mission - 1986

The Untouchables - 1987

Frantic - 1988

Disclosure - 1994

Past Oscar nominations include The Untouchables, Days of Heaven and Bugsy - while this year the Italian movie Malena brought the composer his fifth nomination.

But it was, said Morricone in London on Friday, being overlooked for his work on Roland Joffé's tragic 18th century tale of Jesuit mission work that was the biggest disappointment.

"That score really deserved the Oscar and everybody thought it would get it," Morricone told BBC News Online.

"The music to that film really represents everything I am - both on a technical and spiritual level."

Morricone was speaking ahead of his landmark UK concert debut at London's Barbican Centre at the weekend.

He will give two concerts, as part of the Barbican's Only Connect season.

The Mission starred Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons

They will be dedicated to some of his most celebrated film scores, such as the music to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Cinema Paradiso.

But they will also include a rare performance of his own independently composed music.

'Composer's fantasy'

Morricone said he was very pleased to perform in the UK - something he had always been too busy to do in the past.

He added that he was particularly pleased to be able to show the public a side of himself few would expect in his personal compositions.

Malena is Morricone's fifth nomination

"People still pay attention to the other side of my work because that is cinema and that is famous of course.

"But concert music is just the composer's need. No-one asked him to write it. It is a composer's personal fantasy."

In his 40-year career, Morricone has written the score to more than 400 movies.

But he said he wished he had also written the music to Stanley Kubrick's The Clockwork Orange.

His latest score to Malena, which came out last year, has won him a fifth chance at Oscar stardom.

The film is a story about a young man's journey to maturity against a backdrop of World War II.

The composer's spokesman said that despite Morricone's previous lack of Oscar statuettes, he would be going to this year's event in LA on 25 March.

"But he told the Academy last time that he would only come again if he were to win," he joked.