[GerateWohl]

I was recently dipping again into the works of Miklós Rózsa and found that some scores, even though all of them have wonderful highlights some of them I enjoy more on album than others. Especially when it comes to battle music he can become a little stressful. Very different to John Williams where I could listen to his action music for hours and hours.

Anyway, my top five albums of his are (just focussing on his film works):

– Julius Caesar (re-recording)
– Quo Vadis (re-recording)
– The Man in Half Moon Street (re-recording)
– El Cid (re-recording)
– The Film Music of Miklós Rózsa (featuring The Thief of Bagdad, Jungle Book, Sahara and Ben Hur)

For some reason Ben Hur and King of Kings are probably a bit too religious for my taste. And the Thief of Bagdad re-recording is great, but I am not a big fan of the songs, that actually didn’t appear in the movie. Eye of the Needle and Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid were strong contenders as well.
And these five mentioned i nthis paragraph would have probably made it into my top 10. Or Sodom and Gomorra instead of King of Kings.
But I wanted to focus really on just five.

Anyone else having preferences here?

[Malte Müller]

Good list. Five only is hard 😉

– Ben-Hur (2CD Rhino, the Tadlow re-recording is also great)
– Invanhoe (Re-recording)
– Quo Vadis (Can’t decide if I like Rozsa’s own re-recording more or Tadlow’s)
– El Cid (re-recording)
– Thief Of Bagdad/Jungle Book (The Colosseum album with the suites – one of my first Rozsas)

And the Thief of Bagdad re-recording is great, but I am not a big fan of the songs, that actually didn’t appear in the movie.

Might be that the German version removed them but on the Englisch original version they are there. Beside they do disturb the flow a little and probably would better fit as extra tracks.

[Thor Joachim Haga]

I agree with you, Gerate, that some of his action and suspense material can be stressful and grating. I had a Rozsa phase some 20 years ago, but don’t listen to him much these days. It may have something to do with my tinnitus worsening (x3) fairly recently. Makes listening to bombastic music, with lots of those dense, chromatic chords, very stressful indeed (well, it makes listening to ANY type of music difficult, really).

My favourite is unquestionably KING OF KINGS, with those gorgeous, psalm-like segments. BEN HUR is my earliest Rozsa acquisition, but that endless rowing music (in the middle of the TCM album) drives me up the wall. Maybe my top 5 looks like this:

1. KING OF KINGS
2. EL CID
3. IVANHOE
4. YOUNG BESS
5. THE RED HOUSE

[GerateWohl]

Might be that the German version removed them but on the Englisch original version they are there. Beside they do disturb the flow a little and probably would better fit as extra tracks.

Nono. The German version has the songs. But yes, I wish they had put the song versions into the bonus section and not the instrumental versions. Then I would have liked the album better.

1. KING OF KINGS
2. EL CID
3. IVANHOE
4. YOUNG BESS
5. THE RED HOUSE

I briefly forgot you are into these religious scores. So, King of Kings on no.1 makes sense.
Ivanhoe is great, too. And I wish, I had the Bernstein recording of Young Bess.
I used to like The Red House. But in the meantime I rarely listen to it.

I hope, your tinitus doesn’t get worse, Thor, and you will still be able to enjoy music forever.

Thanks for your lists.
By the way, if I had a wish for New Rozsa rerecordings, I would vote for Jungle Book and Lust For Life.

[Thor Joachim Haga]

Yes, THE JUNGLE BOOK would be nice. I have the 20-something minute suite on the THE THIEF OF BAGDAD album, and I’m open to a slight expansion of that, believe it or not. So colourful.

Thanks for the well wishes, and sorry for calling you Nick. Changed now. 🙂

[Sigbjørn]

There’s already two 30-minute suites from The Jungle Book in modern sound. One from early 80s on the Colosseum label, and the other one from Chandos:

[Thor Joachim Haga]

I have the 80s one. Alas, it starts to skip in the JUNGLE BOOK suite. CDs do get old and die, it seems.

[Sigbjørn]

It could still be possible to rip.

[GerateWohl]

There’s already two 30-minute suites from The Jungle Book in modern sound. One from early 80s on the Colosseum label, and the other one from Chandos

The Chandos album is in my top 5!
But it could use a remaster.

[Malte Müller]

There’s already two 30-minute suites from The Jungle Book in modern sound. One from early 80s on the Colosseum label, and the other one from Chandos:

I only have and know the Coloseeum one which is great. The Chandos is the same suite, right? According to the album tracks of the original score release (which I never heard) probably 25-30 min missing. I think some dramatic material (but as mentioned Rozsa’s ostinatos can be a bit too much). Might be the only Rosza I would love to have a complete re-recording of.

I have the 80s one. Alas, it starts to skip in the JUNGLE BOOK suite. CDs do get old and die, it seems.

It must not always be the CD itself. CD players/drives age as well. Or the laser could also be dirty from dust. Last time my copy played fine as far as I remember. Good occasion to play it again to check…

[Nick Zwar]

My first Miklós Rózsa album was “Miklós Rózsa – Classic Film Music”, Elmer Bernstein conducting the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra. It was also the first CD I ever bought in a store. I didn’t have a CD player back then, but the album was available as a beautiful double LP set or a a single CD… they contained the same tracks and cost the same (at that time, CDs were more expensive than LPs, but since it was two LPs but only one CD, they cost the same.) So I picked the “future proof” CD, even though I had no way to playback the CD then. I bought quite a few more CDs before I ever bought a CD player. (I always buy “software” before “hardware”.) So that album holds a special place in my heart.

But back to business… when you ask about my 5 favorite Miklós Rózsa albums, it starts for me with Rhino’s lavish presentation of BEN HUR. Surely, that is one of the most beautiful soundtrack albums ever produced. It’s just gorgeous, like a book (and it does have a nice booklet). Sure, there was the more extensive presentation by FSM, which featured various additional presentations of the music, and Tadlow’s wonderful new 2CD recording of the score, but as far as presentation goes, the Rhino set wins.
It really is one of the most beautiful presentations of one of the greatest film scores to one of the greatest films of all time… so I’d say the superlatives are justified. Just all around great.

But since you asked for five favorite albums, let’s see… right now I’d pick

1. BEN HUR (Rhino 2CD set)

2. DOUBLE INDEMNITY, THE LOST WEEKEND, THE KILLERS / Sedares: NZSO (Koch)
This is a wonderful album. Each score is presented as a three movement composition, expertly arranged. The scores here all belong to Rózsa’s darker “noir” works. Especially LOST WEEKEND may the the closest Rózsa ever came to write a horror score. Good stuff.

3. EL CID (Nic Raine: CPPO, Tadlow)
Just a great recording of perhaps my favorite Rózsa score. I also love Sedares on disc presentation, but Tadlow’s set is just splendid.

4. JULIUS CAESAR (Bruce Broughton: SoL, Intrada)
Wow, does this thing sound great. Was a big deal when it was released, new recordings of classic film scores were rare in those days.

5. THE RED HOUSE (Wilson: RSNO, Intrada)
May be the most impressionist score Rózsa ever wrote. There is a haunting melancholy weaving through the score, this is one of Rózsa’s must beautiful pieces of music. Never saw the movie, but the music sure stands well on it’s own. Rózsa was of course the most “romantic” of all film composers, but here, his music style seems to take a hint or two from Debussy and Ravel, which makes for a very inspiring sound.

[Malte Müller]

DOUBLE INDEMNITY, THE LOST WEEKEND, THE KILLERS / Sedares: NZSO (Koch)

I do have that as well (and all the Koch Rozsa concert ones, too). It’s great but sometimes I feel the recording could use a little more live or drama. If you understand what I mean…

[GerateWohl]

For the Red House rerecording I found it weird, that disc one has a running time about 70 minutes and disc two is just about 15 minutes.
I remember liking disc 2, but I hardly ever played it as disc 1 covered most of the runtime. They should have split the score rather in the middle. Or leave out five minutes to be able to put everything on one disc.

[Malte Müller]

Or leave out five minutes to be able to put everything on one disc.

But imagine the uproar then! 😉 I only have the score digitally where CD splitting is no problem naturally.

[Nick Zwar]

Yes, while I do have THE RED HOUSE on CD, it’s ripped and I only play the files. I only ever play files, actually, so how the CD is split doesn’t really matter to me all that much. Though disc two is 25 minutes long, so it’s not that short. 🙂

[Forfatter]

Innlegg