Ben-Hur: The Essential Miklós Rózsa [SOUNDTRACK]

Miklos Rozsa (Composer), Kenneth Alwyn (Conductor), Nic Raine (Conductor), Paul Bateman (Conductor), City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra (Orchestra)

Product Details

• Orchestra: City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra
• Conductor: Kenneth Alwyn, Nic Raine, Paul Bateman
• Composer: Miklos Rozsa
• Audio CD (September 26, 2000)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: Silva America
• ASIN: B00004X0T8
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #424,720 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Perlude [Ben-Hur Suite]

2. Love Theme [Ben-Hur Suite]

3. Parade of the Charioteers [Ben-Hur Suite]

4. Valse Crespesculaire/Finale [From Providence]

5. Ceasar Now Be Still/Finale [From Julius Caesar]

6. Overture [From el Cid]

7. Love Theme [From el Cid]

8. Overture [From Sodom and Gomorrah]

9. Perlude/The King's Visit and Farewell [Beau Brummell]

10. Concerto for Orchestra [From Spellbound]

Disc: 2

1. Main Title [From the Thief of Bagdad Suite]

2. Love of a Princess [From the Thief of Bagdad Suite]

3. Flying Horse Galop [From the Thief of Bagdad Suite]

4. Market at Bastra [From the Thief of Bagdad Suite]

5. Perlude [From King of Kings]

6. Lord's Prayer [From King of Kings]

7. Main Title/Finale [From All the Brothers Were Valiant]

8. Waltz [From Madame Bovary]

9. Perlude/Sinbad Battles Kali/Finale [The Golden Voyage of Sinbad]

10. Perlude [Quo Vadis Suite]

See all 13 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "The Heavy-Weight of setting standards...Miklos Rozsa", January 8, 2002

By	J. Lovins "Mr. Jim" (Missouri-USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

A leader among composers in the "World of Cinema Scoring"...Miklos Rozsa is a name that sets the standards high in his music endeavours...his compositions reek with rhythm, melody, themes, originality...Rozsa's scoring style has always been one step ahead of other composers...romantic passages of love themes, thrillers and historical counterpoints tend to lend themselves with the pen of this brilliant human being who feels the heart of what the director and screenplay is trying to express...music becomes another character in this triangle of a media known as the CINEMA.

Who better to present the illustrious works of our composer than The City Of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra...led by Kenneth Alwyn...Paul Bateman...Nic Raine...and the Crouch End Festival Chorus...Musical Director:David Temple...Silva Screen Records released "The Epic Film Music Of Miklos Rozsa"(SSD-1056) in 1996, a collection to be reckoned with...now with this 2-CD-Set, more complete with additional scores and some hard-to-find cues.

Let's look at the additional scores ~ "PROVIDENCE"(1927)..."THIEF OF BAGDAD"(1940)..."JULIUS CAESAR"(1953)..."BEAU BRUMMELL"(1954)..."SPELLBOUND"(1945)...the last selection was an Alfred Hitchcock project and Rozsa's romantic dark theme with overtones of a dreamlike mood that overtakes each passage, this became a classic and is still as fresh today as it was when originally released in the '40s.

If you don't own both releases from Silva Screen...you're missing what "film-score-buff" collectors crave, film scoring on the highest plain...not to mention the latest in recording technology "HDCD" and DOLBY SURROUND...just like sitting in the theater and watching your favorite classic from the past...one can only hope this Silva Screen Digital Film Scores Series will continue now and in the coming years, gotta love it!

Total Time: Disc One 52:19 on 10 Tracks & Disc Two 51:33 on 13 Tracks ~ Silva Screen Records SSD-1117 ~ (2000)

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars New wine in old bottles, December 1, 2001

By	Avie L. Hern "[e-mail]" (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Silva's 2-CD set of "The Essential Miklos Rozsa" treads no new ground, loaded up, as it is, with the old warhorses such as selections from "BEN-HUR," "JULIUS CAESAR" and "KING OF KINGS."

Silva's primary activity in recent years seems to have been repackaging old sountrack albums, throwing in a withheld track or two to make it seem "new" or to force the hand of completists (such as myself, I must admit, when it comes to the music of Miklos Rozsa) who absolutely must have every recording from their favorites, whether it deserves purchase on purely artistic merit or not.

This set is merely an expansion of Silva's "Epic Film Music of Miklos Rozsa" CD issued about three years ago. That disc had the virtue of including a selection from the composer's "GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD", properly instrumented for the fisrt time (unlike the original soundtrack), and one from the Main Title, and exceptionally moving Finale, from "BEAU BRUMMELL" (music Rozsa characteristically "ghost-wrote"to replace rejected parts of the score by the original composer, Richard Addinsell), previously unavailable commercially. They are included on this 2-disc set, though most of the other selections are available elsewhere, and in superior performances.

As always, Nic Raine and Kenneth Alwyn, with the City of Prague Philharmonic, deliver adequate but uninspired performances of Rozsa's music which, admittedly, is among the more difficult to perform among the works of major film composers.

In the final analysis, potential buyers or long-time afficianoados would be advised to spend their money on the splendid 2-CD set "Miklos Rozsa at M-G-M (Rhino), or the forthcoming 2-CD "KING OF KINGS," due this Easter from Rhino." Each is more expensive, but the former contains extended suites edited from the films' original soundtracks, many never before released commercially, all under the spirited baton of the maestro, himself, Miklos Rozsa, while the latter is a long-awaited definitive version of one of the composer's most challenging assignments and uplifting scores.