Customer Reviews

Ben-Hur - A Tale Of The Christ: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1959 Version)

5 star:		(43)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I can't remember when this film score was out of print. The LP sold well, and I still have mine. But after listening to the score, I was always left with a longing for more. This double CD set grants a wish I had many years ago: to have the entire score. It is certainly one of the greatest film scores ever written and after each new listening, I find more things I like about Ben-Hur. There are Yiddish themes, religous themes, brutal Roman march themes, choral themes. It is another film score, that if taken away from the movie, I couldn't imagine watching the movie, the way the themes are introduced, lost, only to reappear later on. I have many favorites but the Love Theme is gorgeous. Rozsa uses brass instruments to portray the colonial power of Rome. The chariot race music is rousing and perfect. It is tough writing themes for Christ but Rozsa comes through with truly inspiring work, and with this entire score you can relish the more subtle effects he gets. There are some echoes of King of Kings but this is the film score Rozsa I feel will be best remembered for; it has wonderful scope, great story-telling power, flexibility, and beautiful melodies. It is so powerful, that when I first saw the movie, the music seamlessly blended and when the film was shown (back then on a large screen) the overall effect was overwhelming. The chariot race and the afterwards show Rozsa at his best, bringing all his many themes together, and at the climax of the film, we know we have experienced a great movie and great music. Highly recommended. This is the ultimate set for fans of Ben-Hur and Miklos Rozsa, the grand wizard of epic film music.

This dual CD set unambiguously deserves many more stars than just a puny five! I have heard none finer. And only a few CDs of equal quality. The legendary Miklos Rozsa is the film's composer. This is the inaugural release of Rozsa's complete score for the 1959 film BEN HUR (BH). The CDs contain 88 tracks in the same order as in the composer's original score. By "complete," I mean there is more music here than there was actually in the film. This is because the CDs include unedited cues and music from film outtakes plus one alternative track. The vast majority of tracks were recorded on the M-G-M sound stage with sizable orchestras of up to 75 performers. The result is sound of intense richness, but not to the point where ensembles over whelmed individual instruments (of which there were quite a few "unusual" ones). Not surprisingly, Rozsa won an Academy Award for BH (his third). While you can debate which of Rozsa's score is his best (my personal favorite is his music for the 1947 film THE RED HOUSE), there is no debate over the undisputed fact that ALL his 90 or so film composition are simply (or very close to) magnificent. The CD booklet is over-the-top outstanding, and easily the most extensive ever created. More of a book than a booklet, it's authors, Marilee Bradford (Ms. Bradford is also produced the CD set) and the late Tony Thomas, have provided us with a definitive source of reference. Rozsa was probably the only composer of his time who could create the score for BH. This CD set is probably the only recording of our time that demands to be in your collection.

William Flanigan, Ph.D.

Miklós Rózsa was, in my opinion, the finest film composer who ever lived. And his score for BEN-HUR is the finest film score ever written. This release is superb in every way: the recorded sound, the packaging, the liner notes. Until this Rhino release was issued, there existed no actual "original" soundtrack! There were only the volumes released by MGM well over 35 years ago, conducted by Carlo Savina and Erich Kloss, and a Rózsa-conducted performance on London (1977) which doesn't touch these original sessions in power and resonance.

Every collector of film music should obtain this release before it's gone! The score represents Rózsa at the very peak of his illustrious career. It is filled with melody, majesty, drama, and the excitement of the "Golden Age of Hollywood" at its zenith.

My everlasting thanks go to Marilee Bradford, who has since unfortunately left Rhino, for producing this wonderful recording, taken from the actual Rozsa-conducted masters. Truly a soundtrack to marvel at!

I agree wholeheartedly with the previous comments on this film score, and would like to add two other observations.

In this score Rozsa achieved two purposes: He was able to underscore both the power and majesty of the film's setting and characters, and the intense emotions that the film conveys; and he did this while at the same time making this music totally accessible to the listener.

I have always felt that the most powerful and best underscoring in any single film scene is Rozsa'a "cue" for the desert scene where the prisoners are marched onto Nazareth. Listening to this recording, one can see that Wyler and Rozsa redid this scene (check the scoring dates). which is probably one of the most important in the film.

If you ever have the opportunity to see the 35th Anniversary laserdisc version of this film, it offers the ability to turn off the dialogue and sound effects, and just listen to Rozsa's score. Watching the 8 minute desert scene, you can see that no dialogue is needed, and that all of the emotion comes from the photography and incredible genius of Rozsa's score. I have shown this scene many times to college students, and it always gets a strong emotion and response from them.

Rozsa's Ben-Hur score is truly a masterpiece, and deserves to be in any music library.

This soundtrack was issued by Turner Classics Movies and Rhino and is sized like a book. In fact, a very informative 52-page booklet (with some wonderful pictures) comes with the CDs, making this an invaluable set. The two CDs contain all of the music (including outtakes) from the soundtrack played in the order it appears in the movie. The sound has been beautifully remastered. This is the kind of soundtrack that so many movies deserve but few get. An outstanding tribute to the novel by Lew Wallace and how it has been presented over the years on stage and film, culminating in the 1959 movie.

I'm prejudiced, I admit it. This is my all time favorite soundtrack. The overture was also the first score I ever conducted, and boy, was I nervous. But Miklos Rozsa had a magic touch, and no conductor can mess up his work. Even though no Roman music actually survived to the twentieth century, his music instantly transports one into the Roman Empire. His music is so distinctive that as soon as this CD began playing on my office computer, people rushed in to ask if it really was the Ben Hur soundtrack. Considering that most of them hadn't been born when Ben Hur was released, that says a lot about the staying power and popularity of both the movie and the score. This is the CD that should be in any time capsule, and on every music lover's shelf. Put it on, sit back, and let your imagination ride on the waves of Rozsa's genius.

I have recently purchased this set from Amazon.

If you are a lover of soundtracks, then you just cannot ommit this double CD set from your collection. Its a classic score. Its superb because unlike many 1950's film scores which tended to be a dreamy background extra which sent you to sleep on a lazy sunday, this score has beautiful sublime moments, and big fanfare suprises too to appeal to all. Like the grand epic movie itself, the soundtrack takes you on a journey of many lands, cultures, positions and situations over two discs. This is what makes this score wonderful to own. Tracks like "Rowing of the galley slaves" fit the movie like a glove and stand alone as wonderful powerful music in their own right that could fit any movie scene today. Its a classic thematic score too. Every situation and person has their theme, and thats why i feel it will appeal to modern soundtrack admirers too who are fond of Williams,Goldsmith, Horner etc. Mass fanfairs and marches for the start of the legendary chariot race for example. Sweeping love themes. Moments of tragedy and sorrow. Everything is here. The cues in the score representing the scenes of Jesus are sounds of peacefull shimmering divinty in the wake of the marching fanfair cues of the Roman legions. The producers of this set really knew what they were doing, and took care and time over this project i feel. Sound is perfect. You can almost feel a personal interest from those who made this. The tracks are wonderfully split into exact sections of musical style. For instance, a dreamy love theme will run up to the end of track 22, and then track 23 starts with a fanfair (unlike some modern CD's such as the Phantom Menace ultimate edition where a fanfair will begin messily on the last few seconds of a sublime peaceful track and the remainder of it is on the next track). Care and interest was put into this production. When i first saw the price of this soundtrack, i admit i gasped like most people would. But when the CD's arrived, they were presented in a beautifull hard cover book about half the length of a long calendar and packaged with all the pomp and grandeur that makes the movie so wonderful. A stunning booklet inside details the history of the story itself and the various films that were made (including lots of juicy information about this Heston version). It also goes on to detail each track on the CD's in a screenplay of the film explaining what is happening in the movie on the particular track you are listening to. I now consider this money well spent indeed. Its worth every penny to have this classic score presented in such a way,and not just stuck in an impersonal plastic box. And if you do not own the DVD of this movie, then what are you waiting for?. The pristine DVD print is worth every penny too.

This is an extraordinary release. It includes the actual studio tracks recorded at MGM with Rozsa conducting and used on the actual soundtrack of the film.

This is not a "music from" type soundtrack recorded later in a separate session. It even includes the musicians track at Arrius' party which began and was interrupted by Arrius to make his announcement.

A treasure.

What a beautiful and moving soundtrack this is. Ben Hur is an unforgettable movie in the history of the cinema, and this music by Miklos Rozsa perfectly compliments the movie in every scene. There are few genius composers of movies, however Miklos Rozsa stands with other great composers such as Henry Mancini, John Berry, Leonard Bernstein and a few others as masters of their craft.

In these overtures you can feel the depth and emotion of Charlton Heston as he portray Judah Ben Hur, a Jewish Prince during the life of Christ. The love, anger, hopelesness and ultimate redemption is not only told with the acting but also in this fine music. I am so glad that the soundtrack that hasnt been available for so many years is finally available on CD, which enhances it even more. My personal favorites are "Annos Domini", "Star of Bethlehem", "Fanfare for Start of the Race" and the "Love Theme" for Ben Hur. But each and every instrumental song on this soundtrack is outstanding.

Highly Recommended!

Ben-Hur is my all time favorite movie since I was 7. When I was 13, I discovered the soundtrack in a good friend of my father's music collection, (yeah, the one with "The Story of the Making of Ben-Hur" book). I always regreted being so chicken to ask him to record it for me in tapes. Since then I am looking for it. And now that finally I have it 17 years later, it was worth waiting for it.

Rozsa music speaks for itself. It is kind of curious to realize Ben-Hur was a great silent film in 1929, but (just do this for fun) if you play the CD meanwhile you watch the film without listening the dialogues, you can notice the same effect that music has on silent films is present in Wyler's version. The music is not just a simple background for the film, it turns itself in another actor.

Every song is just powerful and perfect. If you want to set your stereo to play just few, you do not know which ones to choose. And this is just amazing because we are talking for more than 140 minutes of music.

I can tell my favorite is Esther-Love Theme-Ring for Freedom. The music is so romantic without being "corny".

The Roman and Circus marchs are great. It is hard to imagine Rozsa created this music. You can tell the Romans actually played this!

Finale is another favorite of mine. It makes me travel to the House of the Prince of Hur. It truly reveals the spirit of the story. The chorus singing the characteristic notes of Ben-Hur theme are just amazing and powerful. Sometimes it makes me cry.

I strongly recommend this set. And to make it more than perfect, the book that comes inside has tons of not-very-known photos from the film.

Even if you do not love the film, just good music, buy it. You will not regret it.