Janos Starker mentioned that he had first met Rozsa during the late fifties, and that they'd become fast friends. During one entertaining exchange of conversation, Rozsa's smile faded and his complexion grew inexplicably dark. It was the first time that Starker had ever personally witnessed the onslaught of one of Rozsa's Migraine attacks. Apparently, he was plagued by Migraine headaches for much of his life. He rarely spoke of them, for it was an unpleasant subject for him and he disliked discussing his physical failings. Few of us in the audience had ever heard of these persistant Migraines and, in painful retrospect, one can only wonder if they had been caused by high blood pressure and whether they somehow led to his eventual series of strokes.

Incidentally, I must take a moment here to clarify an issue that has begun cropping up in reviews of Tadlow's new PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES recording. I've maintained a respectful silence on the film music web sites, including this one, regarding the liner notes for the spectacular new CD. For those of you who have not yet had the pleasure of enjoying this beautiful recording, you'll soon discover the historical liner notes for the album were written by me. James Fitzpatrick asked late last year if I'd consider composing the liner notes for the album, and I gratefully accepted his kind and generous offer. As a writer, rather than a musician, I felt somewhat uncomfortable writing the specific track listings and proposed, instead, to offer historical perspective on the composer's life and career. A respected reviewer of film music and corresponding albums recently critiqued the Sherlock Holmes CD and mistakenly attributed a glowing review of the track listings to me. While I appreciated his kind appraisal, I must in all honesty tell you that the specific track listings for the album were written and comprised by Tadlow's esteemed producer, James Fitzpatrick, and not by myself. My remarks follow Juliet Rozsa's introduction at the outset of the booklet and end several pages later. I wanted to clarify this now, and give full credit where it belongs, before this well meaning misinterpretation of facts gets out of hand. I wrote only the historical background on Miklos Rozsa's life and career, as well as the evolution of the score and recording, while the lovely and comprehensive track listings were written by Mr. Fitzpatrick. I hope this explanation will put any confusion to rest, and give credit where credit is due. The recording is exquisite, and enormous credit must be given to Mr. Fitzpatrick and his associates. As for myself, I am honored to have been a small part of its evolution, production and packaging.

Respectfully,





Steve Vertlieb