Michael, I'm suggesting that the Spaghetti Western Orchestra invests Morricone's music with an exaggerated level of irony which is unnecessary. So I'm agreeing with Suibhne - and if you'd read my post properly you would have realised that.

If you can't find humour in Gerard Hoffnung, then I can't help you. I treasure the albums of the concerts he organised at the Festival Hall - the parodies of Schonberg and the wonderful "Let's Make An Opera" - where the Valkyries ride to the stage on Vespa scooters - still have me in fits of laughter. He was a most humane and intelligent man, and a talented cartoonist and musician - his early death was a sad loss.