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CD Review
Miklós Rózsa
Film Music
- Quo Vadis – Music from the film
- Ben Hur – Music from the film *
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Miklós Rózsa
* National Philharmonic Orchestra/Miklós Rózsa
Dutton Vocalion CDLK4332 2CDs 87:34
These two soundtracks have long been close to my heart especially the one from "Ben Hur", a fond memory for me when it was on a Phase 4 LP which I still cherishingly possess. The sound then, as now, bowls over with its sense of immediacy and sense of humanity especially in numbers such as "The Burning Desert", "Leper's Search for the Christ" and the concluding 'Miracle and Finale' all reproduced in brilliant and stunning sound.
"Quo Vadis" is similarly spacious and involving although the music is of a slightly lesser quality. The love theme of "Marcus and Lygia" is creditable enough but the whole seems rather disjointed in places with Rózsa still clearly trying to find his feet in this genre. Still, Dutton is offering almost 90 minutes of music for the price of one CD and with copious notes by Alan Hamer from the Rózsa Society and superb remastering, one really must have these excerpts from the composer himself in their libraries.
Copyright © 2007, Gerald Fenech
