Essential Miklos Rozsa: Ben Hur

Miklós Rózsa / City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra

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Essential Miklos Rozsa: Ben Hur Review

by Bruce Eder

Silva Screen's double-disc Miklos Rozsa tribute is a decent if slightly limited compilation of the late composer's scores across several idioms, from across his career, though most of the material is concentrated in his prime Hollywood years. The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and the Crouch End Festival Chorus do well by the material at hand, although their interpretations tend to be a little freer and less taut than the originals -- the Ben-Hur material, for example, tends to luxuriate a bit in the writing, for the reeds in the love theme and the brass in the prelude and the "Parade of the Charioteers," without really adding much to what Rozsa himself did on the original film sessions. The state-of-the-art sound is impressive, and the sheer size of the orchestra is a delight to the ear, but there's a lot to be said for the nuances of the original recordings, where the latter are viable. Such is not the case with the music from El Cid, which has always been lacking as a soundtrack album or CD release, and on those two cuts this set really comes to life -- similarly, the order in which the tracks appear, interspersing the music from Providence between a pair of epics, is a statement of Rozsa's sheer range; the makers have also salvaged the overture from Sodom and Gomorrah, one of the most unhappy projects on which Rozsa ever worked, and the latter was worth the effort. All of that said, it's a pity that the producers limited themselves to re-recording just four portions of Rozsa's music from The Thief of Baghdad, one of his finest and most influential scores, which has yet to be properly represented on CD -- additionally, they've tampered with the music in the main title sequence, so that it really isn't a fully proper representation of even the portions of the score that are here, and they've tampered with the tempos of the music that isn't altered in content.

Track Listing - Disc 1

	Title/Composer	Performer	Stream
Ben-Hur, symphonic suite from the film score
1	Prelude Miklós Rózsa	City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra / Miklós Rózsa
2	Love Theme Miklós Rózsa	City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra / Miklós Rózsa
3	Parade of the Charioteers Miklós Rózsa	City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra / Miklós Rózsa
Providence, film score
4	Valse Crespesculaire/Finale Miklós Rózsa	City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra / Miklós Rózsa	Amazon
Julius Caesar, film score
5	Caesar Now Be Still / Finale Miklós Rózsa	City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra / Miklós Rózsa	Amazon
El Cid, film score
6	Overture Miklós Rózsa	City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra / Miklós Rózsa	Amazon
7	Love Theme Miklós Rózsa	City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra / Miklós Rózsa
Sodom & Gomorrah, film score
8	Overture Miklós Rózsa	City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra / Miklós Rózsa
Beau Brummel, film score
9	Prelude/The King's Visit and Farewell Miklós Rózsa	City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra / Miklós Rózsa
10	Spellbound Concerto, for piano & orchestra Miklós Rózsa	City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra / Miklós Rózsa	Amazon

Track Listing - Disc 2

	Title/Composer	Performer
The Thief of Baghdad, suite from the film score for orchestra
1	Main Title Miklós Rózsa	City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra / Miklós Rózsa
2	Love of a Princess Miklós Rózsa	City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra / Miklós Rózsa
3	Flying Horse Gallop Miklós Rózsa	City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra / Miklós Rózsa
4	Market at Bastra Miklós Rózsa	City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra / Miklós Rózsa
King of Kings, film score
5	Prelude Miklós Rózsa	City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra / Miklós Rózsa
6	The Lord's Prayer Miklós Rózsa	City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra / Miklós Rózsa
All the Brothers Were Valiant, film score
7	Main Title/Finale Miklós Rózsa	City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra / Miklós Rózsa
Madame Bovary, film score
8	Waltz Miklós Rózsa	City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra / Miklós Rózsa
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, film score
9	Prelude/Sinbad Battles Kali/Finale Miklós Rózsa	City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra / Miklós Rózsa
Quo Vadis, film score
10	Perlude (Quo Vadis Suite) Miklós Rózsa	City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra / Miklós Rózsa
11	Arabesque (Quo Vadis Suite) Miklós Rózsa	City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra / Miklós Rózsa
12	Romanza (Quo Vadis Suite) Miklós Rózsa	City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra / Miklós Rózsa
13	Ave Caesar (Quo Vadis Suite) Miklós Rózsa	City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra / Miklós Rózsa

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