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Time for an update!
In my original post I had written: "Sodom and Gomorrah -- Digitmovies released a two disc (but not complete) version of Rozsa's last epic score back in 2007, but it had many sound problems, apparently more mastering issues and unconnected to the RCA extended score release on LP which it used as a source. The previous shorter CD issue of the score had far superior sound for those sections of the score. My hope is that this title will get a revisit, either as a new remastering of the original recording or better yet, as a new complete reconstruction/rerecording from Prometheus/Tadlow!"
I can now add that Digitmovies has announced a straight reissue of their earlier two disc expanded version:
http://filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=106360&forumID=1&archive=0
It was revealed that the only thing different from their previous limited release is the packaging (it is now in a digipak rather than jewel case). This is something of a disappointment because many had hoped that if anyone reissued the title, it would have new mastering and perhaps more music as the previous release was not complete. Those who owned the same program on an LP set (I believe it was an RCA Spain import?) claim the LP has much superior sound and that Digitmovies (mastered from the LP?) over-employed audio "fixes" which negatively impacted the sound.
With the new Digitmovies reissue these issues may just never be fixed on the original recording, or at least it will probably be many years before a label like Intrada or LLL decides it's worth another go if they manage to lay their hands on the original recording tapes or something.
Luckily there is a happy ending in the forseeable future, in the form of James Fitzpatrick announcing in the very thread above that he is going forward with a Tadlow Music re-recording of the complete score with the City of Prague Philharmonic. I can think of no happier solution for both improved sound quality as well as the missing music being included, and this will make a superb follow up to the epics El Cid and Quo Vadis (with respect due to the first Tadlow Rozsa production as well, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes).
Hopefully Mr. Fitzpatrick will have some access to Rozsa's original written score, or at the very least some sketches to aid in orchestration of this mammoth masterpiece, and it won't have to all be done by watching the film! I hope that like El Cid we end up with whatever music Rozsa wrote for the film (and may have originally recorded) and not necessarily only what ended up being used in the actual film.
All Rozsa fans await further developments with bated breath...
Yavar
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I'm so pleased to be able to update the original post! I had written,
"The Lost Weekend -- a Paramount film and I have heard that tracks survive so perhaps we'll actually see a release of the original tracks if they can clean up well..."
And lo and behold, Intrada to the rescue, with a familiar name producing -- Lukas Kendall, undying champion of all things Rozsa! All those MGM scores he put out weren't enough! He's going to put out the definitive version of every Rozsa score he can lay his hands on! 
Thanks Lukas. I imagine working things out between Paramount and Universal on this one can't have been a walk in the park.
Yavar
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You're right Bob. I will update when I get a chance, though Intrada's re-recording was sadly just a (generous) suite so there's still unreleased music from it, since I'm trying to keep track.
Yavar
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The one big glaring omission that stands out like a sore elephant's trunk is 'A Double Life'.
An academy award winner, an AMAZING score, very varied, and ..... nothing at all in the digital age, and precious little before either.
That needs fixing.
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Intrada strikes again with DESERT FURY.
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Sorry for the late update. I've removed the following from the opening post:
"Desert Fury -- this was a Paramount production and *maybe* they saved tapes (we did get Martha Ivers, after all) but I woudn't hold my breath hoping..."
Awesome that this survived!
And thanks Doug for the explanation of those two titles; I've corrected it in the main post (and will get around to incorporating other people's helpful input one of these days!)
Yavar
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Even though I'd already removed it from my list when the re-recording was announced, I figured that the actual arrival of Tadlow's new complete recording of Sodom & Gomorrah warranted a bump for this thread. Reports have started coming in that this is the best Tadlow Rozsa recording yet, outclassing the original recording (at least as presented by Digitmovies) in almost every way and containing far more additional music than expected to make the score complete.
It's great to see Rozsa still getting the love!
Yavar
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In response to all the praise his new Sodom & Gomorrah recording has been getting, James Fitzpatrick just chimed in with this tantalizing tidbit:
"Glad everyone seems to like it....so much so that I am virtually committed to record 2 of Rozsa's biggest scores in the next 2 to 3 years..... "
Major news! I wonder what scores these could be...hopefully ones that are otherwise lost in complete form, such as The Thief of Bagdad or A Double Life.
Yavar
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I've now updated the original post to reflect the new releases of Double Indemnity and (as was pointed out to me) The Man in Half Moon Street, though the latter was only a (generous) suite. I have actually chosen not to remove either title from the list since there is still over 10 minutes of Double Indemnity missing, but I'm probably being silly and inconsistent in this case because other Paramount Rozsa titles have come out a little bit shy of being complete and I still removed them as long as the release was as definitive as possible. I guess I figured there's still a chance the missing cues of Double Indemnity, being so famous, may still get newly recorded in the future, but I'd better not hold my breath!
Still, it is absolutely AMAZING news that almost 40 minutes of Double Indemnity survived in good condition from over 70 years ago!
Yavar
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I've now updated the original post to reflect the new releases of Double Indemnity and (as was pointed out to me) The Man in Half Moon Street, though the latter was only a (generous) suite. I have actually chosen not to remove either title from the list since there is still over 10 minutes of Double Indemnity missing, but I'm probably being silly and inconsistent in this case because other Paramount Rozsa titles have come out a little bit shy of being complete and I still removed them as long as the release was as definitive as possible. I guess I figured there's still a chance the missing cues of Double Indemnity, being so famous, may still get newly recorded in the future, but I'd better not hold my breath!
Still, it is absolutely AMAZING news that almost 40 minutes of Double Indemnity survived in good condition from over 70 years ago!
Yavar
I agree. I haven't listened to much of his work, but I'm wise enough to know when a legend's work should be properly archived. The man left a huge imprint on the film composing industry and helped shape the way for future composers.
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I'm late in bumping this thread but it is more than warranted for Intrada's recent reissue of The Golden Voyage of Sinbad. It wasn't included in my list above because the Prometheus release was the complete score as edited for and included in the film...but Intrada's new release has much better sources and features a bit more music because cues that were edited on the Prometheus are intact now.
They uncovered the original album master for the first time, so the album program sounds far better than ever. And they also uncovered a variety of stereo sources for the complete score, so that has an even more drastic sound improvement compared with earlier releases. This now appears to be the definitive version of the score, and the only way it could possibly be bettered is if a complete new recording were undertaken (since the original recording itself still has many unavoidable issues).
May Intrada's fantastic championing of Rozsa long continue!
In addition, we have some great news confirmed from Tadlow in the past month: they have undertaken a complete reconstruction of Rozsa's other "Middle Eastern" score from much earlier in his career: The Thief of Bagdad. Apparently a great deal of music was written for, but not used in, the film. Therefore this new recording will feature around half an hour of Rozsa music never before heard, even on the music & effects track! There may even be some unused songs written by Rozsa which were uncovered, left over from the original conception of the film. All in all over 120 minutes of music is about to be recorded very shortly by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir. It's an incredible time to be a Rozsa fan!
Yavar
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I won't say Rozsa never disappointed me but it's certainly been rare. I even find some of his stranger scores like Something of Value interesting (and they prove that not all Rozsa sounds the same!)
I will say I never cared for Spellbound. I find the theme really annoying. But then I also really dislike the film.
Oh, and I Want to Be a Sailor from Thief of Bagdad. Not just the terrible vocalist on Bernstein's recording. I don't like Sabu singing it either. I find the song incredibly obnoxious. I'll be editing it out of my Thief of Bagdad playlist...but thankfully the rest of the score is glorious!
Yavar
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I know I have many more updates I need to make to the original post, thanks to the contributions of people in this thread. For now though, I have updated the five scores which were recently represented on Intrada's final Rozsa release from the Paramount vaults: Five Graves to Cairo ("almost the complete score"), So Proudly We Hail, The Hour Before the Dawn, The Man in Half Moon Street, and The Woman of the Town.
Yavar
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Back in the day, long before any of these releases were even a fantasy in anyone's mind, I used to make what I called "TV Tapes," recording just the music moments from films shown on TV, which unfortunately included dialogue and sound effects. Since I was living in New York City at the time, I was able to get hold of a lot of obscure Rozsa scores. ( Sadly, a lot of these tapes, recorded on reel-to-reel I was never able to get transferred to CD-R, and now, after numerous cross-country moves, I have no idea what may have happened to them.)
But, since I used to listen to them frequently, herewith are a few reminiscences of score that still stand out in my memory:
A DOUBLE LIFE - marvelous score, lots of music, though I prefer all the grandiose Shakespearean themes for the "Othello" scenes. Apart from that, there's a lot of noir sound for Ronald Colman's obsession with his changing identity. (BTW: Remember, this is the movie that won Colman his Oscar for Best Actor.)
THE MACOMBER AFFAIR - Great score. Lots of psychological, moody music, and a recurring under theme for the attraction of Peck to Bennett.
LYDIA - Lush score, with a frequently recorded "Lydia Waltz," as well as various other set pieces, such as the blind pianist's little suite, and the overwrought music for Lydia's failed Maine romance.
LADY HAMILTON - This is the one I'd want re-recorded, in addition to DOUBLE LIFE. Very grand. Great love theme, and some good stuff for Battle of Trafalgar, as well as light times for Nelson and Emma at the Neapolitan court.
A WOMAN'S VENGEANCE - Weird psychological thriller about jealous Jessica Tandy taking vengeance on poor Charles Boyer for daring to fall in love with someone else, in this case Ann Blyth. However, this score has one of the most beautiful, haunting love themes, for solo violin, that I've ever heard, anywhere, a real standout for any composer. Gorgeous theme!
I will update this as I review Yavar's comprehensive list.
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Well...I went ahead and removed The Thief of Bagdad from the list, thanks to Tadlow's amazing new super-complete recording for Prometheus.
I had written:
"The Thief of Bagdad -- perhaps Rozsa's most famous and beloved score for Korda. It's been re-recorded by Elmer Bernstein and others and also had the surviving music tracks isolated on the Criterion DVD release. Still, a definitive complete (well...I don't want all that "I Want to Be A Sailor" stuff personally, but everything else I drool for) re-recording would be wonderful to have, and this is the other title besides the Sahara/Five Graves to Cairo twofer that John Morgan of Tribute Film Classics has been collecting original scores for for many years now in the hopes of completing a complete reconstruction..."
It seems certain that all we will have from the original recording is the isolated music track with effects on Criterion. And since Tribute Film Classics seems to be done producing recordings, I am happy that Tadlow/Prometheus decided to take an interest in this lovely score.
Most fascinating of all was the revelation that Rozsa wrote a lot of music for the film which was not only unused in the film, but wasn't actually recorded...until Tadlow restored those parts. One would hope that for next year's planned new recording of Ben-Hur, they similarly intend to record previously-unrecorded music from Rozsa's score. (Several of these pieces have been recreated with synths/samples from the original scoring sheets and I believe were uploaded to YouTube.)
Yavar
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