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I've never seen the film but have known the pursuit music for ever, having had it on LP in the 1970s on one of those excellent compilations. It helped cement my love of the fugue (go on, someone tell me that it isn't a fugue but a passacaglia or something).
You're good, Tall Guy - it's a fugue not a passacaglia. 
And sue me, but I still think Rozsa was right in tightening up the concert overture - I think the revision is an improvement. Now, of course, if a new recording was released of the original version, I'd buy it in a heartbeat, but still....
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No need to call my lawyer, Sean. I can enjoy -- and usually I have no choice in the matter -- the revised Overture, and even appreciate that it's tighter. Better? Maybe, maybe not, but yes, it is tighter. And, it certainly works on its own terms: When I'm listening to it, I confess I never notice the place where the excised material used to be; I never think,"Oh, that's the spot where that nifty little passage that I liked so much used to be." But I do like that nifty little passage, and after it's all over, I do wish I had heard it.
In a world where restored/expanded recordings exist of original versions of everything from a Vaughgan Williams symphony to Gershwin's An American in Paris, I think there could be room on anybody's Rozsa shelf for both versions of the Concert Overture.
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In a world where restored/expanded recordings exist of original versions of everything from a Vaughgan Williams symphony to Gershwin's An American in Paris, I think there could be room on anybody's Rozsa shelf for both versions of the Concert Overture.
Amen! My favorite example of this is Copland's ballet Grohg (heavily influenced by Nosferatu, so a nice film music connection there). It was unpublished until the '90s but also the source of his early Dance Symphony. The symphony was an early favorite Copland work of mine, but it was fascinating to hear the original ballet. Yet, I tend to go back to the symphony for, yes, a tighter listen. But I'll never give up my recording of Grohg, and I sure would like a better recording of the original version of Rozsa's overture.
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The greatest, the absolute "chase-music" in the whole history of cinema... . Strange that nobody cared for a complete reconstruction & re-recording. The only quasi-adherent film version is an old acetate made in the past by Tony Thomas, paired with acetates of BRUTE FORCE.
A digital version with Brute Force/The Naked City
Background to Violence / Orchestral Works by Miklós Rózsa
https://itun.es/us/jYNGI
That's just the shorter version, originally VSD-5405 from Varese, the Frankenland State SO from Varese. A good performance and recording, but edited. That Pursuit and Epilogue comes in at 5:45, essentially the same as the RPO posted above, whilst the TT version is 6:33.
The longer 'Pursuit' is on a 'grey area' ('gray'!) CD in bad sound (not just from acetate, but badly over-cleaned: 'better to get the Tony Thomas LP and transfer it yourself). That has some of the menacing parallel 4ths (5ths?) stair climb, the hysterical strings, and the macabre dance passage, all in that extra minute or so. But this too was a reperformed suite, the original version, so somewhere there's bound to be a manuscript even if it might have pencil mark score-outs!
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Onya, it's not surprising that your embrace of Rozsa scores, which eschews the epics, includes SPELLBOUND and LOST WEEKEND. Those two scores are clearly flowers from seeds planted in the same garden where the composer grew DOUBLE INDEMNITY and THE KILLERS.
Just out of curiosity, I invite you to expand and expound on what the noir scores have for you which the epics lack. Thanks.
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You probably called it THE NAKED CITY. Oh, wait, you mean the thread. You probably called it The Score That Nobody Talks About.
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Posted: |
May 10, 2017 - 3:54 AM
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By: |
finder4545
(Member)
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Noir is basically the only genre of Rozsa's that interests me, although I love Spellbound and The Lost Weekend. People go on and on and on about the epics. Give me the noir scores.
Differently than other genres listened discontinuosly, I re-visit regularly the noirs of Rozsa, particularly the trilogy of Hellinger put on those "grey" records recalled by William , so I can understand, Onya. Like you, and according to my taste, I find a "special Rozsa" in those works and in that period, full of exploding energy and drama.
Maybe there plays its role the intimate attitude of Rozsa for the tragic, which in the noir genre finds special occasion of well-defined expression.
It's a pity that the said trilogy, existing on old recordings in various shapes , still remain unrestored, decently ordered and put on disc.
The "grey" records remain unlistenable, a real technical offence! Maybe the Rozsa Society can say a word about that question.
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Posted: |
May 10, 2017 - 6:09 AM
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By: |
OnyaBirri
(Member)
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Differently than other genres listened discontinuosly, I re-visit regularly the noirs of Rozsa, particularly the trilogy of Hellinger put on those "grey" records recalled by William , so I can understand, Onya. Like you, and according to my taste, I find a "special Rozsa" in those works and in that period, full of exploding energy and drama.
Maybe there plays its role the intimate attitude of Rozsa for the tragic, which in the noir genre finds special occasion of well-defined expression.
It's a pity that the said trilogy, existing on old recordings in various shapes , still remain unrestored, decently ordered and put on disc.
The "grey" records remain unlistenable, a real technical offence! Maybe the Rozsa Society can say a word about that question.
While I have appreciated some recent-ish noir re-recordings and archival releases, I still feel that this genre's representation on LP and CD has been disproportionate to its cinematic impact and importance.
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