[GerateWohl]

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. 🙂

Oh ok. You see? It’s been some time since I played it. 😀
Many things get smaller in distant memory.

[Amer]

My favourite Rozsa Scores are mostly the re-recordings:

1) EL CID (re-recordings- Both Tadlow & Koch)
2) SODOM AND GOMMORAH (re-recording)
3) BEN HUR- (re-recording on Phase 4 and the Originals )
4) THE THIEF OF BAGDAD (re-recording)
5) JULIUS CEASAR (re-recording & OST)

[Thor Joachim Haga]

Nice selection, Amer!

[Dr. Jacoby]

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.

There was some speculation that disc 2 was going to be filled out with the entirety of the Man in Half Moon Street CD that was released around the same time. It makes sense. Why sell one CD if we can get people to buy two?

[Graham Watt]

Doesn’t it say in the liner notes that the album was split that way to maintain the “geography” of the score? Something like that?

I still think BEN-HUR is an absolute masterpiece. I love SODOM AND GOMORRAH but find that the the re-recording is taken far too slowly (in the non-action cues). EL CID is splendid. IVANHOE… I’m a sucker for that Golden Age pageantry. Oh, KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE. LUST FOR LIFE, even late-career stuff like THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD. I’ve no idea how many I’ve listed, but I’m not sure I could whittle it down to five.

[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

Having just reached, and finished, Rozsa in my (neverending) collection walkthrough, I think I need to make a couple of amendments.

The general opinion still stands — Rozsa’s abrasive action music is still torture on my tinnitus-affected ears, but there’s a lot to love in his more downtempo and downkey moments.

I think an updated ranking would be:

1. KING OF KINGS (unbeatable…yes, there is abrasive action music, but the religioso/choral music is unbeatable)
2. YOUNG BESS
3. EL CID
4. THE THIEF OF BAGDAD
5. BEN HUR (being my first Rozsa album – the 1CD TCM edition, I just had to have it on there. Yes, the action music – and especially those fucking rowing cues – still drives me up the wall, but the religioso/downtempo cues rival those of KING OF KINGS).

[Malte Müller]

Great Rozsa scores (although I don’t agree about those rowing cues and actions personally)

[Author]

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