I first fell in love with the old school Hollywood soundtrack via Bernard Herrmann, who really stole my heart (via ears). But once I saw Ben Hur for the first time I was completely swept up by maestro Rózsa, whose discography I'm steadily accumulating. Though I have the Hitchcock scores and (most of) the epics, I'm soon going to be investigating his film noir stuff in the near future (as well as seriously considering snatching up a less familiar score to me, Sherlock Holmes).
I hope we can all pitch into this unashamed love in, as Rózsa most certainly deserves such.
Apologies if this thread has existed already, in different forms.
Rozsa is definitely my favorite composer, though Herrmann is definitely a close second. I first fell in love with Rozsa's music watching Ivanhoe (I had seen Ben Hur before, but it would be several years before I would really appreciate it), and was swept up by his stirring action music and beautiful love themes for Rowena and Rebecca. I'd definitely recommend acquiring this score if you don't already have it. I'd have to say though that for my favorite Rozsa score, it's a close call between Ben Hur and El Cid. One other note, unless you were referring to Herrmann with regards to the Hitchcock scores, the only Hitchcock film Rozsa scored was Spellbound, which the master reportedly didn't like though it did earn Rozsa his first Oscar (I really need to get the Intrada recording of this, though I have several versions of the Concerto).
I grew-up a Silver Age brat (Williams, Goldsmith, Barry, Kamen, Horner, et al), but took a chance on a cut-out LP of Ben-Hur (the Decca / London album) I found in the record store. I was hooked!
While my interest stills centers around 60s-90s scores, Rozsa is a favorite. El Cid and Ben-Hur are among my very favorite scores of all time, and I also have enormous affection for Fedora, The Thief of Baghdad and Time After Time.
I'm sure this has been posted before, but here is a rare TV appearance by Dr. Rozsa performing a suite from Ben-Hur with the Pittsburgh Symphony...
the only Hitchcock film Rozsa scored was Spellbound, which the master reportedly didn't like though it did earn Rozsa his first Oscar (I really need to get the Intrada recording of this, though I have several versions of the Concerto).
My friend, the Intrada is EXCELLENT! And I did boo-boo in regard to Hitchcock.
I think the maestro would have made later Hitchcock movies like "Family Plot" a WHOLE lot better than they were. No offense to John Williams (more than probably the best living composer), but I didn't get much out of what he did with that score.
I grew-up a Silver Age brat (Williams, Goldsmith, Barry, Kamen, Horner, et al), but took a chance on a cut-out LP of Ben-Hur (the Decca / London album) I found in the record store. I was hooked!
While my interest stills centers around 60s-90s scores, Rozsa is a favorite. El Cid and Ben-Hur are among my very favorite scores of all time, and I also have enormous affection for Fedora, The Thief of Baghdad and Time After Time.
I'm sure this has been posted before, but here is a rare TV appearance by Dr. Rozsa performing a suite from Ben-Hur with the Pittsburgh Symphony...
The mono MGM Records boxed set of BEN-HUR was the very first LP I ever purchased, back in the spring of 1960, and I fell in love with the score. It was the immediate gateway to a flood of even more Rozsa scores in the next 2-3 years (KING OF KINGS, EL CID and SODOM AND GOMORRAH), and, equally important, to the world of symphonic music, both film music and classical music. That love of good music and musical recordings has remained with me all my life.
With James Fitzpatrick's new release of the splendidly conceived and recorded BEN-HUR, the musical "circle of life," as it were, is complete for me; I am as content as the biblical Simeon. In Fitzpatrick's recording achievements with the City of Prague Philharmonic over the past years, I have found a true kindred spirit, a man with an ever-abundant love of the same music that I have treasured for over half a century. Certainly he has kept the flame of Rozsa's musical spirit alive in his resplendent new recordings of THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, EL CID, QUO VADIS, SODOM AND GOMORRAH and now BEN-HUR.
The mono MGM Records boxed set of BEN-HUR was the very first LP I ever purchased, back in the spring of 1960, and I fell in love with the score. It was the immediate gateway to a flood of even more Rozsa scores in the next 2-3 years (KING OF KINGS, EL CID and SODOM AND GOMORRAH), and, equally important, to the world of symphonic music, both film music and classical music. That love of good music and musical recordings has remained with me all my life.
With James Fitzpatrick's new release of the splendidly conceived and recorded BEN-HUR, the musical "circle of life," as it were, is complete for me; I am as content as the biblical Simeon. In Fitzpatrick's recording achievements with the City of Prague Philharmonic over the past years, I have found a true kindred spirit, a man with an ever-abundant love of the same music that I have treasured for over half a century. Certainly he has kept the flame of Rozsa's musical spirit alive in his resplendent new recordings of THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, EL CID, QUO VADIS, SODOM AND GOMORRAH and now BEN-HUR.
Ben Hur, both the movie and the music, was a one shot knockout punch for me. I get so much out of my studies of that score, to me it's one of the greatest compositions since Mahler.
The mono MGM Records boxed set of BEN-HUR was the very first LP I ever purchased, back in the spring of 1960, and I fell in love with the score. It was the immediate gateway to a flood of even more Rozsa scores in the next 2-3 years (KING OF KINGS, EL CID and SODOM AND GOMORRAH), and, equally important, to the world of symphonic music, both film music and classical music. That love of good music and musical recordings has remained with me all my life.
With James Fitzpatrick's new release of the splendidly conceived and recorded BEN-HUR, the musical "circle of life," as it were, is complete for me; I am as content as the biblical Simeon. In Fitzpatrick's recording achievements with the City of Prague Philharmonic over the past years, I have found a true kindred spirit, a man with an ever-abundant love of the same music that I have treasured for over half a century. Certainly he has kept the flame of Rozsa's musical spirit alive in his resplendent new recordings of THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, EL CID, QUO VADIS, SODOM AND GOMORRAH and now BEN-HUR.
Mine is nearly complete. I think Rozsa's The Jungle Book is exquisite, very much filled with feeling and passion. I think it is quite different to anything i have heard from his output, well, perhaps I would include The Thief of Bagdad.
Of course, still holding out for Herrmann's Journey to the Centre of the Earth as well.
The mono MGM Records boxed set of BEN-HUR was the very first LP I ever purchased, back in the spring of 1960, and I fell in love with the score. It was the immediate gateway to a flood of even more Rozsa scores in the next 2-3 years (KING OF KINGS, EL CID and SODOM AND GOMORRAH), and, equally important, to the world of symphonic music, both film music and classical music. That love of good music and musical recordings has remained with me all my life.
With James Fitzpatrick's new release of the splendidly conceived and recorded BEN-HUR, the musical "circle of life," as it were, is complete for me; I am as content as the biblical Simeon. In Fitzpatrick's recording achievements with the City of Prague Philharmonic over the past years, I have found a true kindred spirit, a man with an ever-abundant love of the same music that I have treasured for over half a century. Certainly he has kept the flame of Rozsa's musical spirit alive in his resplendent new recordings of THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, EL CID, QUO VADIS, SODOM AND GOMORRAH and now BEN-HUR.
...Certainly he has kept the flame of Rozsa's musical spirit alive in his resplendent new recordings of THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, EL CID, QUO VADIS, SODOM AND GOMORRAH and now BEN-HUR.
Do not forget THE THIEF OF BAGDAD !
Aaaargh! Good grief! I knew I missed one!
Anyway, you KNOW I own them all, James. Plus all of the others, going back to Tadlow 001 (GUNS OF NAVARONE)...
...Certainly he has kept the flame of Rozsa's musical spirit alive in his resplendent new recordings of THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, EL CID, QUO VADIS, SODOM AND GOMORRAH and now BEN-HUR.
Do not forget THE THIEF OF BAGDAD !
I've got that one on the way, along with the Tadlow Sodom and Gomorrah (the latter is here TOMORROW YAY!
The Tadlow Ben-Hur is exceptional! I don't have the FSM release, but I do have the MGM and I vastly prefer the James Fitzpatrick recording. Wonderful showcase for this score. Rozsa is one of those masters whose work I just fall in love with as pure music without having to see the film (I'm one of those who kind of usually needs to see the film to connect strongly with a score). One a small handful of composers do that for me.
Miklos Rozsa is probably(?) my single favorite composer. I've become more obsessed with Goldsmith over the past five years or more, and I do think Goldsmith is the most brilliant *film* composer of all time. But no other composer, including Goldsmith, has deeply moved me to the degree of Rozsa at his best. No one else in history consistently wrote themes as heartbreakingly gorgeous, IMO.
His music also always has such depth and integrity to it, whether written for film or the concert hall. And when writing for the former I think the degree of his versatility is honestly quite overlooked. Maybe he wasn't quite the chameleon as Goldsmith, but let no one forget that he wrote for ensembles ranging from "African" choir to solo guitar. And the man did thorough musicological research whenever possible, in Golden Age Hollywood perhaps only a few times by Alfred Newman (ie. Captain from Castile).
All that said, I'm with Hitchcock on Spellbound as a score. I know it won an Oscar, and it is certainly memorable which is probably why...but outside of a few cues I find it overly slushy. I get really, really sick of that main theme by the end. One of my least favorite Rozsa scores (and Hitchcock films besides, in part related to the score). I'm amazed to hear anyone suggest Rozsa would have done a better job than Williams with Family Plot.
I may be in the minority in that I count Family Plot as one of my three favorite John Williams scores of all time...and favorite scores for a Hitchcock film. It brilliantly fits that quirky film with its rapid shifts in tone. It features some absolutely hilarious over the top choral stuff for the medium scenes, but also some of William's most thrilling action/suspense music, with brilliant use of the harpsichord -- and instrument which I often dislike.
I honestly can't imagine a more effective or appropriate score being written for that final Hitchcock film; I wouldn't even wish that Goldsmith had gotten a crack at it!
All that said, I'm with Hitchcock on Spellbound as a score. I know it won an Oscar, and it is certainly memorable which is probably why...but outside of a few cues I find it overly slushy. I get really, really sick of that main theme by the end. One of my least favorite Rozsa scores (and Hitchcock films besides, in part related to the score). I'm amazed to hear anyone suggest Rozsa would have done a better job than Williams with Family Plot.
I may be in the minority in that I count Family Plot as one of my three favorite John Williams scores of all time...and favorite scores for a Hitchcock film. It brilliantly fits that quirky film with its rapid shifts in tone. It features some absolutely hilarious over the top choral stuff for the medium scenes, but also some of William's most thrilling action/suspense music, with brilliant use of the harpsichord -- and instrument which I often dislike.
I honestly can't imagine a more effective or appropriate score being written for that final Hitchcock film; I wouldn't even wish that Goldsmith had gotten a crack at it!
Yavar
The main theme in Spellbound does get overused some...but it was an earlier score and hey, back then it seems the Academy Awards were usually a bit more valid than today (that's not saying much, I know). I say that knowing full well how neglected Herrmann, North, and Newman were (the fact that both Vertigo and Psycho were completely passed over is an unforgivable abomination in my eyes).
You know, a lot of my distaste for Family Plot has to do with what I considered its inferior quality as a movie (compared to the outright Hitch classics). I do happen to like the movie...I just felt a couple of the other Hitch composers would have made the movie MUCH better with their scores. I personally think Herrmann would have knocked it out of the ballpark, but then I generally rate Herrmann (and Rozsa and Goldsmith) higher than Williams (don't hate me).
Huge fan of Williams' Close Encounters, and it's hard to beat Jerry. My first ever soundtrack was Boys from Brazil (still love it).
But I wouldn't waste the shelf space on those corny epics.
To each his or her own. I'm somewhat opposite, I can't get into the noir as much as the epics, but I do plan on filling shelf space with ALL the Rosza I can, right along with Bernard.
I'm also nowhere near as much a fan of noir movies as I am epics and Hitchcockian suspense stuff...no comparison. Noir never clicked for me much. Just me.
Aaaargh! Good grief! I knew I missed one! 
