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A sequel to my Goldsmith and Poledouris threads:
http://filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=90657&forumID=1&archive=0
http://filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=94331&forumID=1&archive=0
Over the past decade we've had a deluge of Rozsa releases, thanks in great part to Film Score Monthly. I would argue that no other film music label has done as much for the legacy of a single composer than FSM has done for Rozsa, with release following release until the culmination of every remaining scrap of music recorded for MGM released in their huge Green Box and their definitive 5 disc Ben-Hur just this last year. They also of course released a number of his Warner Bros. scores, such as The Green Berets and Time After Time. Other labels have been contributing as well: Kritzerland surprised us all with Martha Ivers. Intrada gave us the original tracks to Last Embrace and most recently, their superb complete reconstruction/rerecording of The Red House! Prometheus gave us the complete Golden Voyage of Sinbad and most recently worked with Tadlow to give us a superb complete reconstruction/rerecording of Quo Vadis?. And just today we've learned that Digitmovies, not to be left out, is following up their near-complete Sodom and Gomorrah with a complete release of Providence! We Rozsa fans have a lot to be grateful for, and apparently Rozsa is a popular enough composer to justify all of this love sales-wise (extending to his concert works as well!)
So, in this thread I will try to answer the question: after all these many releases, what Rozsa scores are left to "definitivize"?
(Unlike the previous two lists I made, Rozsa was no longer writing film scores in the 90s, so we don't have the issue of Varese holding rights in perpetuity to any Rozsa scores, with one exception I will deal with below in regular reverse chronological order
Eye of the Needle -- This was in fact given a new remastered release this past year by Varese Sarabande. Unfortunately it was in their Encore series, and it was a reissue of the re-recording they had produced for LP back in the early 80s. While certainly lovely to have, according to Roger at Intrada due to their LP recording Varese also controls rights in perpetuity to the original film recordings, which has never been released at all, complete or otherwise. Varese is apparently the only company allowed to give us the complete score, and instead of giving us a definitive two disc set with both the film and album recordings, they gave us just the same program that was previously available. We may be waiting a long time for a definitive Eye of the Needle. The film is owned by MGM so if not for the Varese problem I suspect we would have seen a perfect release some time ago.
Last Embrace -- Varese had also produced a re-recorded LP for this, but unlike Eye of the Needle did not negotiate for perpetuity rights on the film recording. Therefore, while they released their LP program paired with Eye of the Needle on their original CD release of that score, Intrada *was* this time able to license the film recording for complete release on their own label. Their release was in mono, however, and continued reports that the complete score did in fact survive in stereo has led many to wonder if we might see another label, say LLL or Kritzerland, tackle it again.
Fedora -- I'm not sure who owns the rights at the moment, and tapes might not survive, but this was Rozsa's last collaboration with Billy Wilder so it really deserves a definitive release if possible...Varese released the LP (and later CD in their first Club series) but presumably don't have perpetuity rights (does anyone know if their release was a re-recording or the original film tracks?)
The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover -- an odd item in his filmography, probably owned by MGM at the moment. I've never seen the film so one of you will have to fill me in on what music might be missing from the existing releases on Citadel or Bay Cities. Perhaps Bruce K., formerly of Bay Cities, can give this underrated Rozsa score a makeover on his Kritzerland label...
Providence -- we can now cross off the list thanks to Digitmovies!
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad -- the poor-sounding and poorly-performed complete original tracks have been given the best release possible several years back (paired with a remaster of the OST) from Prometheus, one of their last releases before they focused all of their resources solely on re-recordings in association with James Fitzpatrick and Tadlow. A truly definitive release of this score would be for it to reappear on Prometheus as a complete re-recording with a world class orchestra and conductor to give us a world-class performance and sound quality for this superb adventure score. We know how good it can be because Fitzpatrick gave us a brief but excellent re-recorded suite on Silva many years ago...and City of Prague is better now than they were then!
The V.I.P.s -- though the LP program (a re-recording) has been released a number of times, most recently by FSM in their Rozsa box, the film recording has never received a release because apparently it doesn't survive. Lost scores are found all the time but this one seems unlikely since it was recorded in London. Though a good score, I suspect the chances of this receiving a complete re-recording before many other higher-profile Rozsa titles to be very small.
El Cid -- similar to The V.I.P.s the original film recordings are tragically lost. Unless they somehow show up we shall have to content ourselves with Tadlow's wonderful 3 disc complete recording of the score!
A Time to Love and a Time to Die -- a Douglas Sirk picture from Universal for which Rozsa was loaned out from MGM. We've slowly been seeing more and more older Universal titles get released, primarily by Intrada (with a few coming out from LLL). I was hoping (and will continue to hold out hope) that Intrada will get around to a complete release of this score despite the fact that it received a shoddy grey-label (exploiting the European 50 year copyright rule) release of the LP contents, poorly remastered, just this past year. The LP was on Decca, a UMG label, so Intrada would have to work with both UMG and Universal Pictures (for the unreleased music) but they've done similar deals before when they really care about getting a score out.
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At this point I'm going to refer people to FSM's wonderfully detailed Rozsa at M-G-M Chronology which gives details on all of Rozsa's work for M-G-M and the status of tapes/releases. It's so similar to what I'm doing in this post it seems foolish to duplicate it more than I already have in my discussions of the last four titles:
http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/notes/rozsa_at_mgm.html
As the titles get older and older unsurprisingly fewer of his scores survive and I'd certainly be interested in re-recordings of the following scores from his MGM years:
Madame Bovary (only complete from FSM due to them using M&E tracks to fill out the missing music)
Crisis (incomplete on the set and would be cheap to re-record since it was primarily written for guitars)
The Red Danube (incomplete fantastic score)
The Bribe (a completely lost film noir, would be great to get complete as a re-recording with other lost noir scores by Rozsa, whether MGM-produced or not)
Command Decision (Rozsa's first MGM score under his new contract, completely lost but less than half an hour long so might make a great filler score on some other re-recording)
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Now to Rozsa's earliest period, pre-MGM: Many, if not most, of these scores probably no longer survive on tape (or perhaps even in written form), so it's much more sketchy that we'd see releases of any of these. Many of them we may only see represented in transcriptions of major themes, like Intrada's two releases of early Rozsa themes for piano, or BSX's release of Rozsa for guitar (all nice to have but hardly definitive). Still, I feel I should list them for completeness' sake, and perhaps we'll get lucky with a few as we did this past year with Intrada's complete Red House rerecording and Kritzerland's surprise release of Martha Ivers' original tapes....
Kiss the Blood Off My Hands -- his last film under his Universal contract. I don't believe we've seen orginial recording releases for many (if any) Universal films of this vintage. Who knows if anything of Rozsa's tenure at Universal survives? If so, Intrada might be our best hope...
The Naked City -- same situation as above, but as this is one of his most high profile films, and has received several re-recorded suite releases, perhaps a complete re-recording would be more likely than for other titles.
A Woman's Vengeance -- Universal, same situation.
Secret Beyond the Door... -- ditto
A Double Life -- Rozsa's second Oscar-winning score; bits and pieces have been released re-recorded on compilations...this is probably one of the prime candidates for the next complete Rozsa re-recording!
Brute Force -- another of his most high profile noirs for Universal; this might end up on a re-recording disc compiling some of his noir work...
Time Out of Mind -- Universal; see above.
Song of Sheherezade -- ditto
The Red House -- I think it's pretty safe to assume the original tracks are lost, which is why we can be so grateful to Intrada for their amazing new complete recording of this last year!
The Other Love -- A United Artists release, which means surviving tapes are pretty much impossible.
The Macomber Affair -- ditto; maybe we could see these represented on a re-recording...
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers -- I'm only listing this because technically the Kritzerland wasn't complete, but what survived sounded surprisingly GREAT and we're lucky to have anything from this so I wouldn't expect any further release...
The Killers -- another high-profile noir from Universal, suites have been recorded and probably the best we can hope for at this point is someone to tackle it as a complete rerecording.
Spellbound -- one of Rozsa's most famous and "covered" scores with countless re-recordings and suites culminating in Intrada's complete reconstruction from several years ago. We're unlikely to get anything more definitive (such as original tracks) at this point...
Because of Him -- a credit on IMDb I don't see duplicated on Soundtrack Collector; can anyone confirm his involvement? I suspect SC just overlooked this Universal title...
Lady on a Train -- Universal title totally unreleased in every way; maybe we can hope for a suite to be included on a re-recording of a longer and more high profile Rozsa score?
Blood on the Sun -- Citadel put this out on LP, released on CD back in 2006...and that is all we will probably see of this score.
The Man in Half Moon Street -- a Paramount fantasy-horror film, this is fairly unique in Rozsa's filmography and would be great to see released. A couple years ago, Intrada recorded and released a new suite of over 20 minutes from this score, and even more recently, they released the three cues from the original film recording that survived in the Paramount vaults, including a single cue that was not in their newly recorded suite.
The Hour Before the Dawn -- Intrada just released the five surviving cues (totaling 11 minutes) from the Paramount vaults; this is likely all we will ever get of the score and it's better than nothing!
Dark Waters -- a suite was available at some point but this independent production (release by UA) is probably otherwise lost)
Double Indemnity -- Intrada just released almost 40 minutes of this classic noir score, combined with six other noir scores by various composers, almost certainly as difinitive a release as possible. A little over ten minutes of this score are apparently still missing (though available on an isolated Music & Effects track, our only hope for a music-only release at this point would appear to be a re-recording).
So Proudly We Hail! -- Intrada recently released the surviving 17 minutes of this score (length of the entire score unmentioned) on their last volume of Rozsa music from the Paramount vaults; it was also one of the many older titles represented by a track on Intrada's first Rozsa piano disc.
The Woman of the Town -- Rozsa's "other Western" score (besides the FSM-released Tribute to a Bad Man for MGM), the finale cue of which was recently released on Intrada's final volume of Rozsa from the Paramount vaults (this was sadly all that survived of the original recording).
Five Graves to Cairo -- another early Paramount film and Rozsa's first collaboration with his friend Billy Wilder. Intrada just released everything that survives from the original recordings of this. They described it as "almost the complete score" so I'll still list it here just in case -- John Morgan has for YEARS been talking about doing a complete re-recording of this score (with William Stromberg conducting) as their first Rozsa release, pairing it on one disc with...
Sahara -- done the same year but in this case for Columbia, this would go great with Five Graves to Cairo (the complete scores to both should fit on one disc) if Mr. Morgan can manage to produce it for us!
Jacare -- does anyone know anything about this documentary Rozsa is credited with at IMDb and Soundtrack Collector?
To Be Or Not To Be -- Rozsa wrote some uncredited music for this hilarious film (one of my favorite comedies) but it's not his most distinguished stuff and assuming the original tracks don't survive would probably never get re-recorded.
The Jungle Book -- one of Rozsa's earliest surviving scores, we got all the surviving tracks from the Film Music Society back in 2004. The sound quality was so-so, a decent amount of music was missing and some of the music on the CD consisted of alternate versions from what was in the film, but we should all be grateful we have even that (plus some other suites and things released over the years). People have still been clamoring for a complete re-recording of this score with all the alternate and concert versions and since it is one of Rozsa's best and most high-profile early scores it may just come to be!
Sundown -- independent, released by UA, unmentioned at Soundtrack Collector but I could have sworn something from this was released somewhere.
Lydia -- another one of Rozsa's films for Alexander Korda; a handful of tracks (though I doubt they're they original recording) have been released on Citadel and Varese (a piano suite?) I would hope to hear more of it somehow...
That Hamilton Woman -- another Korda production, the love theme has received some attention on various compilations like BSX's Rozsa guitar disc and most notably an orchestral re-recording conducted by Joel McNeely for Varese on one of their Hollywood [insert year here] albums, to celebrate a Rozsa anniversary. It sounded great so we can only hope that more of the score will be re-recorded at some point!
New Wine -- a UA release and probably a lost cause.
Ten Days in Paris -- distributed by Columbia; probably a lost cause
On the Night of the Fire (aka The Fugitive) -- a British production released by Universal in the U.S. but almost certainly lost (it is one of the oldest titles represented on Intrada's first Rozsa piano disc)
The Spy in Black -- ditto except released by Columbia in the U.S.
The Four Feathers -- another Korda production, and probably Rozsa's most high profile score of the 1930s so might possibly warrant a re-recording some day. (Charles Gerhardt for his Rozsa album re-recorded almost 8 minutes...)
The Divorce of Lady X -- British production released by UA in the States...
The Green Cockatoo -- released by Fox in the States
Thunder in the City -- confused as both Columbia and UA apparently released in the States...
Murder on Diamond Row -- under "The Squeaker" at Soundtrack Collector (it was a remake according to IMDb), another British Korda production released by UA in the States...
Knight Without Armor -- Rozsa's very first film score (for a Korda production). It was on (and contributed the title) to Intrada's first volume of Rozsa for piano, as well as getting almost 10 minutes re-recorded by Rozsa himself for one of his three Polydor albums re-recording suites from his film scores...
...speaking of which, those three albums now owned by UMG are at the top of many Rozsa fans' wants lists. Hopefully tapes for THOSE can be found because they are the only way many of his earlylost scores are represented orchestrally (and in excellent performances).
Thus endeth the list...what Rozsa scores are YOU most hankering for out of these?
Yavar
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Thanks for the reply, Bob. Always a pleasure to see one from you in one of my threads (the Goldsmith/Poledouris/Star Trek composers threads in particular recently). I'm consistently amazed by your ability to pull up obscure but helpful information.
Too bad in this case we're all left scratching our heads...probably just an IMDb goof, because I think the only thing Rozsa was writing in 1989 was his unfinished viola sonata...his doctors had basically forbidden him to write anything large scale if I understand correctly.
Yavar
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Thanks. I just updated the list with the rest of Rozsa's filmography (pre-MGM)...though of course there isn't much hope for most of those titles to be heard outside the films.
Yavar
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To Be Or Not To Be -- Rozsa wrote some uncredited music for this hilarious film (one of my favorite comedies) but it's not his most distinguished stuff and assuming the original tracks don't survive would probably never get re-recorded.
Ah, I had wondered about this the last time I saw the film (which you are correct, is hilarious), I saw the entry at IMDB, but wasn't sure whether or not it was original music Rozsa wrote for it, or if it was something that was just tracked in.
Not really something I would consider a priority, but it is very recognizable as Rozsa when it pops up in the middle of the film. (I think I further cemented my wife's perception of me as a hopeless geek when I pointed out that "Hey, that's Miklos Rozsa music!)
...speaking of which, those three albums now owned by UMG are at the top of many Rozsa fans' wants lists. Hopefully tapes for THOSE can be found because they are the only way many of his early lost scores are represented orchestrally (and in excellent performances).
These, despite only knowing a few of the tracks from Youtube, are probably one of my most wanted releases from any composer, just based on the rave reviews and the tracklists.
Keep up the good work on all these threads, Yavar, fascinating reading.
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Glad my work on these is appreciated. I wasn't planning on doing many more, though. Only one I'm itching to do at the moment is Elmer Bernstein. That'll be a lot of work because he was in the film industry for longer than Goldsmith, was almost as prolific, but hasn't gotten as much "definitive" love from the soundtrack specialty labels (presumably because he doesn't sell as well...I was shocked to find out FSM's amazing Great Santini release only sold 700 copies!) The result is that there is a lot more non-definitive Bernstein to list as compared with Goldsmith. I think it'll be my longest list of this type.
Yavar
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Fedora -- I'm not sure who owns the rights at the moment, and tapes might not survive, but this was Rozsa's last collaboration with Billy Wilder so it really deserves a definitive release if possible...Varese released the LP (and later CD in their first Club series) but presumably don't have perpetuity rights (does anyone know if their release was a re-recording or the original film tracks?)
The album was certainly more complete than the OST in the film mix.
The Naked City -- same situation as above, but as this is one of his most high profile films, and has received several re-recorded suite releases, perhaps a complete re-recording would be more likely than for other titles.
Except that the suite releases contain a lot of what's there. Rozsa only scored the last ten minutes of the film, very bracing stuff, but the rest isn't he.
A Double Life -- Rozsa's second Oscar-winning score; bits and pieces have been released re-recorded on compilations...this is probably one of the prime candidates for the next complete Rozsa re-recording!
It damned well should be, but no-one ever wants to do it. His second Oscar and very varied music. Historical, psychological and film noir combined. There isn't even a stereo recording of the orchestral suite.
Song of Sheherezade -- ditto
The problem there is that a lot of stuff is by Rimsky-Korsakoff adapted. That's a bit dodgy in terms of taste or representativeness for Rozsa's work.
The Killers -- another high-profile noir from Universal, suites have been recorded and probably the best we can hope for at this point is someone to tackle it as a complete rerecording.
There are acetates of the whole score, but previous releases of that on CD were boot and very badly mastered.
Because of Him -- a credit on IMDb I don't see duplicated on Soundtrack Collector; can anyone confirm his involvement? I suspect SC just overlooked this Universal title...
If you have the Varese 3CD for the Centennial, or their old 4-hands piano concertos album, conducted by Elmer Bernstein, you'll have the excellent Palmer-compiled 'Overture' from the Prelude and Finale.
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There's been some speculation that Rozsa contributed to John Greenwood's score for the 1938 Korda film DRUMS (The Drum).
Yes, quite sizeable bits, one with lots of people riding out on a mission of some sort. The whole thing was on YouTube until recently, may still be.
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Yes, I know John Morgan has been working for years to find the remaining parts for Thief of Bagdad so apparently even some of the later Korda productions have spotty survival rates. I'll get around to making some updates to my above list soon. Thanks for the info everyone!
Yavar
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Great piece you wrote Yavar, thanks!
You're welcome. I'll consider any suggestions for other composers to do this with; the only one I'm eager to do at the moment is Elmer Bernstein. (I'd prefer not to do any composer who's still with us, so that rules out Williams.)
Yavar
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In my original post I had written,
"The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes -- Tadlow has given us a complete recording of this masterpiece because the original tracks apparently no longer survive, aside from an up-and-down M&E track included on a laserdisc release of the film. Unless somehow the original recordings survived and get unearthed in the future, there's nothing more to expect from this title aside from the slim chance of the M&E track getting cleaned up and issued on CD, as FSM did for Quo Vadis? in their Rozsa box."
It seems like a variety of sources were used to piece together an Archival Edition of this title, thanks to the painstaking work of Quartet:
http://filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=100421&forumID=1&archive=0
I think Private Life has now been given the most definitive treatment it's likely to ever receive, so it's off the list. This one was a surprise for me. Here's hoping I can update this list more this coming year...
Yavar
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