Miklos Rozsa at M-G-M: Motion Picture Soundtrack Anthology [SOUNDTRACK]

Miklos Rozsa

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 19, 1999)
• Original Release Date: October 26, 1999
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: Rhino / Wea
• ASIN: B00001WRKT
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #289,800 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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  Music > World Music > Europe > Eastern Europe > Hungary

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Miklos Rozsa was one of the musical giants of Hollywood's golden age. By the time he signed on with M-G-M for what he called his "fourth phase," a successful series of historically themed costume dramas that included Quo Vadis (whose musical tracks are still lost) and Ben-Hur, the Hungarian-born composer had already written music for a disparate collection of films, including The Thief of Bagdad, Spellbound, Double Indemnity, and The Lost Weekend. This collection of original recordings documents both Rozsa's quality-conscious unwillingness to let his film work take a back seat to his other career as a classical composer and the historically authentic musical elements he continually strove to weave into these costume epics. Even his acquiescence to the studio's desire for a pop title song with Green Fire yielded nothing less than epic results. Half a century later, Rozsa's work still informs much of Hollywood's film scoring. --Jerry McCulley

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Collection of Rozsa' s Film Music!, October 29, 1999

By	Joe NY - See all my reviews

Finally Turner/Rhino has given us a collection worth waiting for. This collection covers Miklos Rozsa's prolific years with MGM. Almost 160 minutes of his film music is represented here in extended suites. Most of this collection has never been released before. The sound quality is exellent and often in true stereo sound, taken from the master recordings.The lavish 48 page booklet is worth the cost of the set itself. It is difficult to critizise this set, but it does have its down side. Several of the selections deserve to have thier own, complete, stand alone release. IVANHOE, KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE, LUST FOR LIFE and KING OF KINGS particularly. Rhino has choosen to give us excerpts rather than the complete scores. Only a couple of years ago Rhino/Turner were offering complete soundtracks for ZABRISKI POINT, POLTERQUIST,BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL, DARK SHADOWS and others which included every alternate and unused take. However, for Rozsa we get excerpts. Rhino recently stated that they are in business to make money and not preserve film music. This philosophy apparently holds true with this release. Rhino is certainly watching its purse strings. It would have been wonderful if we could have gotten a 3 of 4 disk set. Still, I grateful that this set is available. It would make a wonderful addition to any movie lovers library of film music. One thing I should note, the notes mention that QUO VADIS is not represented because of the unavailability of suitable source materials,but no mention is made for JULIUS CAESAR's exclusion.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the better collections of Rozsa's film scores, May 17, 2008

By	Larry VanDeSande (Mason, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This Rhino collection reintroduced through Turner Classic Movies is one of the better sets of film scores by Miklos Rozsa, all conducted by the composer from the actual period scores. The two-disk collection is a memento of Rozsa's years employed by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio before he broke out independently.

The contents include suites (no individual tracks, just a run-on of elements from each score) from each film starting with 1949's Madame Bovary and ending with 1961's King of Kings. The score included here does not double the King of Kings score from Angel's "Film Scores of Miklos Rosza" and includes 13 minutes of original music. Other films in the package are Ivanhoe (1952), Knights of the Round Table (1953), Beau Brummel (1954), Valley of the Kings (1954), Moonfleet (1955), Green Fire (1954), The King's Thief (1955), Diane (1955) and The World, The Flesh and The Devil from 1959, that Cold War message movie about bigotry after nuclear devastation that I recently saw again on TCM.

This is a treasurable collection of some of Rozsa's better film scores, many of which are not duplicated on other collections. The first two (Madame Bovary and Ivanhoe) are in mono and all the others are in early stereo. There is plenty of fidelity and the brass -- so important is Rozsa's romantic statements -- play well throughout. Everything sounds pretty good, to be honest, better than you might expect considering one critic here downgraded this a point for sound value. These all sounded great in both my 5.1 home stereo and in my six-speaker car sound system.

Another big plus for this collection is a 52-page booklet that never dedicates less than two pages of text and photos to each movie score. There are six pages dedicated to the composer -- including a photo of him playing the bizarre buccina, which it says is "an ancient musical instrument used in his score for Quo Vadis" (it looks like one of those horns the Romans played in Ben-Hur) -- and a couple pages dedicated to production notes that tell you how these recordings were made.

I learned here for the first time that some of the stereo originals were recorded on three tracks, meaning they could conceivably be reintroduced someday in super audio with real three track output. The booklet includes documentation on each suite with its contents, lyricist (as applicable), and recording dates. There is a list of production credits on the inside back cover that shows everyone involved.

Considering the level of documentation included in this outstanding booklet, this has to be one of the better Rozsa collections ever put on CD. It's too bad it's NLA. Fortunately, Amazon Marketplace allows you to relive this glorious period by acquiring this wonderful collection before it's gone for good. Don't hestiate if you enjoy romantic film scores from Hollywood's golden age.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The place to start, December 27, 2002

By	scifiman (California, United States) - See all my reviews

This extraordinary collection is the place to start in learning about Hollywood's Golden Age in music. Rozsa's music represents that pinnacle of majesty and perfect representation of the movie that rarely occurs now a days. Get this.