 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Miklos Rozsa composed some of the loveliest melodies ever written for movies. BEN HUR is a superb achievement, and I often play this score.
However, my favorite Rozsa score is KING OF KINGS. The movie isn't nearly as well-done as BEN HUR, but that score has stunningly gorgeous themes.
I'm crazy about that score. I'll be even more crazy once we have a complete recording of it that doesn't completely bankrupt me 
|
|
|
|
|
|
I love Rózsa's film noir scores.
But I wouldn't waste the shelf space on those corny epics.
Is this about music, or is it about movie memorabilia?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Is this about music, or is it about movie memorabilia?
All of the above.
lol! Hey, why not? 
I can see where some folks might not be into the mega-epics. I don't see (most of) them as corny musically, but I do agree that Onya's term applies to the likes of King of Kings and S&G as films. The scores to those two mentioned films are high level composition throughout (and I majored in composition).
I feel that Ben Hur alone is a masterpiece...not just as a vital part of the (imo excellent) movie, but having sensational merits as a standalone composition. And that's just one example of an enduring work from the maestro's repertoire (it's more fun if you folks fill in the blanks).
This is coming from a person who had a college degree in music at the age of 18: the silly line between film composer and composer will continue to blur, in less than fifty years many of these scores will be considered as vying with the great dead composers; or at least what was truly "great in music" since Wagner (whom is still considered the last of the freakily great composers by the overwhelming majority of music academics). The continued re-recordings of all these film scores only prove my point: just as we have had tons of Beethoven recordings over the past couple of hundred years or so (give or take a decade), so we see (and will continue seeing) with Herrmann, Rozsa, and the best of the others.
Are those scores Beethoven's 9th, Tristan und Isolde, the Brandenburg Concertos? Ha ha, no. However they have nothing to be ashamed of, at least in the eyes of those who have studied music for most of their lives.
So, after that longwinded outburst, yes Onya I agree that the epics can be corny as films. But we need to go no further than the vast majority of superhero soundtracks to know what is corny in music (not to mention more pieces than I can count from the Classical and Romantic eras). Though I haven't yet heard many of the Rozsa soundtracks, the ones I do know rarely sink to that level...at least no more than a good portion of Mozart's output (whom, let's face it, despite having the most spectacular melodic sense in music history, could be pretty damn corny).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
My whole point in weighing in is that Mickey's best scores get the short shrift, while the epics get all the attention.
I think your point is more than valid. I think the supa-epics made the most money, which helps explain why. I could be wrong.
I do still consider Ben Hur to be one of his Elite best scores though.
|
|
|
|
|
|
I feel like I'm being somewhat remiss here...besides Spellbound and the little I've heard of PLoSH, I really haven't heard much of the pre-50s Rosza (outside of the often excellent concert music).
So I doubt I'm very qualified to talk about the maestro's noir work...I don't know, say, Double Indemnity anywhere near as well as the abovementioned works. So I was wrong to say what's "best" out of the man's music when I haven't heard the great majority of that side of his writing. Forgive me, please.
I do know I love Herrmann's score for "On Dangerous Ground" if that counts as noir (probably shows how little I know of the genre). Movie wise, I'm not the biggest fan of the genre (though I do really like ODG).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Wagner, you should pick up the CD with the Lost Weekend and Double Indemnity, by the New Zealand Symphony (I think). Also the double CD of The Red House (which could have fit on 1 CD if they had left out a few of the minor cues like the church music).
THANKS! Hitting Amazon now. Excited
|
|
|
|
|
|
Wagner, you should pick up the CD with the Lost Weekend and Double Indemnity, by the New Zealand Symphony (I think). Also the double CD of The Red House (which could have fit on 1 CD if they had left out a few of the minor cues like the church music).
THANKS! Hitting Amazon now. Excited
ooo, I see one with "Killers" too, a threebie. Hmmm.
Thanks for the help!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Check out a Varese Sarabande CD 'Lust for Life and Background to Violence' with Rozsa conducting.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Koch isn't 'bad', it's just what some folk regard as sonically unfaithful. But I still like it.
Don't forget the Intrada Paramount Films Noirs 2CD with its 40 minutes of OST 'Double Indemnity'.
'Grey area' European CD releases of the Tony Thomas acetate albums are all available but in really disgraceful over-mastered sound.
Don't forget the RCA Gerhardt album.
I have come to loathe spellchecker programs on phones. They 'correct' errors you never made and are more trouble than they're worth. I was writing something somewhere about the Sedares Koch series, when the interpreter spewed forth, 'It's worth getting hold of the Sedated Cock, though some think the performance more subdued'.
|
|
|
|
|
|
I hope that finally we will be able to get cd releases of wonderful Polydor recordings that Rozsa made with Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. For me those LP albums are one of the most desired Rozsa recordings. It is very weird that so great recordings are not avaiable on cd for so many years!. Im hope we get finally all of them, properly remastered. It is 40 years of waiting ! And still nothing... maybe Intrada can help... ?
|
|
|
|
|
|
I am closely eyeing the Intrada Red House, anyone have opinions?
Also, I may be wrong, but exactly how is there apparently no rerecording or even a full length disc for the Oscar winning "Double Life". PLEASE feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
Yesterday I was in ecstasy marveling over "Sodom and Gomorrah", today I crack open "Thief of Bagdad".
I think I'll be ready for the maestro's noir soon!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
