Bob Ward
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roward |
advocating for Rozsa |
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This past Saturday morning I was attending an open rehearsal of the Harrisburg Symphony, and I took a chance and approached the conductor, Stuart Malina, during a break. I asked if he would consider programming music by a favorite composer of mine. He asked who the composer was, and I replied Miklos Rozsa, are you familiar with his music at all? He said he was slightly acquainted with his film music, having performed some of it. I went on to tell him about the concert music, and the fact that there have been a number of new recordings released recently. I asked if he would like me to send him some cd's of the music, and he was very enthusiastic and appreciative of the offer. Hopefully, Harrisburg may be hearing some Rozsa in the seasons to come.
Bob Ward |
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John Fitzpatrick |
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I think this was one of the best and most useful suggestions we've ever had here. So let me resurrect this old post. So many comments here are either
ephemeral -- "When is it coming out?" -- or else concerned with matters totally out of our control -- "Why didn't they turn up the treble a
bit more?" -- But when somebody makes a practical suggestion that each and every one of us can act upon and maybe do some good . . . Well, you see the
result!
I bring this up in connection with the current mention of Anastasia Khitruk's New York recital. Amid all the richly merited praise for her recent Naxos recording, we tend to forget that she has not yet had a chance to actually play the work in public. This is not for want of trying. Remember, too, that pianist Sara Davis Buechner is still seeking an orchestral partner in the Piano Concerto. The problem is with the orchestras and orchestra directors --their timidity, their limited budgets, and unfamiliarity with new music. This is an area where we can all contribute.
Last Edited By: John Fitzpatrick
10/15/08 12:00:12.
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William D McCrum |
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Did not Miss Khitruk play a concert at the Hungarian Embassy in Washington?
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Hank V |
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Why don't they (both Beuchner and Khitruk) approach Mariusz Smolij who conducts the Acadania Symphony and is interested in Rozsa. He is to team up with
Gilad Karni in November for the Viola Concerto.
Last Edited By: Hank V
10/15/08 16:24:07.
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William D McCrum |
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Now here's an interesting example of someone 'advocating for Rozsa'. On Friday and Saturday, Ennio Morricone gave two good and varied concerts to
open the Belfast Festival at Queens. The first concert was broadcast as a radio programme, available for download on a BBC link for seven days (I'm not
sure if that's so outside the UK).
The reviewer present was Mike Catto a Scottish film-critic and journalist. Near the end of the concert he made the following comment: 'We tend to forget that there are only two composers (who) have altered film-music genres: one is MIKLOS ROZSA for Roman epic films, and the other is Maestro Morricone ... the Western has never been the same since he did it as 'Dan Savio', one of his many pseudonyms back in 1965 ...' I think I was a bit surprised to hear this. I mean, Rozsa doesn't get the same kudos usually as others do in terms of innovation, but he did here. And no other composer was mentioned during the entire show. Is it a true claim, or is Mr. Catto a Rozsevangelist? It was a nice touch. http://www.bbc.co.uk/nort...dioulster/enniomorricone/
Last Edited By: William D McCrum
10/19/08 17:36:19.
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John Fitzpatrick |
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Miss Khitruk has played portions of the Concerto (violin-piano reduction) in private or benefit settings. What I meant was that she has not yet had a chance to
play the great work with an orchestra. That was the whole idea of the Naxos recording: to generate further interest in a series of performances, a prospect
that would benefit us, Rozsa's reputation, and Miss Khitruk's carer. Nobody except Naxos makes money on Naxos recordings. Like the forthcoming Gilad
Karni Viola Concerto, the Op. 24-28 pairing was the beneficiary of generous patron support. It also has our purchasers' support. Think of these recordings
has trees. They have blossomed but they have yet to bear fruit.
To the previous mention of Maestro Smolenj, I would add Yair Samet, the San Francisco Bay Area-based conductor who did such a great job preparing three (!) Rozsa concertos for a single program in Belgrade earlier this year. He has indeed expressed interest in working with Sara Davis Buechner, whom he already knows. As I said earlier, the challenge is getting an orchestra on board. And to repeat Robert's original suggestion, the local and regional orchestras are good places to start.
Last Edited By: John Fitzpatrick
10/20/08 12:08:35.
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A Lee Hern |
OF MIES AND MEN: LESS IS MORRICONE | ||
'We tend to forget that there are only two composers (who) have altered film-music genres: one is MIKLOS ROZSA for Roman epic films, and the other is Maestro Morricone ... the Western has never been the same since he did it as 'Dan Savio', one of his many pseudonyms back in 1965 ...' I agree with exactly half that statement. |
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John Fitzpatrick |
Altered Roman Films? | ||
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I wonder. There wasn't much of a "Roman genre" before QV, was there? Most of the famous films were silents. Had there been any substantial Roman
Empire stories in the forties? So what exactly did Rozsa alter? The next question is how much he influenced his successors. Would The Robe, The Silver
Chalice, Demetrius, etc., have been significantly different without MR's example? It seems to me that Newman and Waxman found their own stylistic
approaches. It's an interesting question.
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William D McCrum |
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The usual thing MR himself pushed is that he was the first to use authentic ethnic and period styles and modes in movie scoring, but that's not strictly
true. Alf Newman was using mediaeval estampies in 'Hunchback of Notre Dame', although he didn't use that style throughout, preferring 19th Century
Romanticism for Hugo. And Walton incorporated mediaeval stuff in 'Henry V' etc.. It's easy to claim if you are the first to do something that all
else who do that subsequently are 'influenced'. And historians will tend to agree with the assessment. Rozsa used to say wryly that he had no disciples
in this, but that's not to do justice to all the 'period' scores since. As regards the 'Roman' thing, it's usually the parallel fourths
and fifths that provide the modern cliche. But Ravel and others were doing that to depict antiquity, and Respighli too.
I think this reinforces the idea that Mr. Catto just wanted on some level to acquaint an audience: 'Look, this is all very fine music, but there are OTHERS you'd love if you knew about them.' It's proselytizing really. But they say Rozsa scored from 95-100 films. Only 2 to 4 (depending on your definition) were 'Roman Epics' and I think it would help a wider audience if they knew not only the concert greats, but also the other genres, like the Films Noirs etc.. People like to categorise. But, hey, the guy took an opportunity. |
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A Lee Hern |
KOPPS AND ROBBERS | ||
There wasn't much of a "Roman genre" before QV, was there? Most of the famous films were silents. Had there been any substantial Roman Empire stories in the forties? So what exactly did Rozsa alter? The next question is how much he influenced his successors. Would The Robe, The Silver Chalice, Demetrius, etc., have been significantly different without MR's example? It seems to me that Newman and Waxman found their own stylistic approaches. It's an interesting question. The only American Roman epics prior to QUO VADIS were DeMille's SIGN OF THE CROSS (1932) and CLEOPATRA (1933), and the Merian C. Cooper-Ernest Schoedsack THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII (1935). The first film's score was credited to Rudolph Kopp (with apparent uncredited contributions by Milan Roder, Jay Chernis, and Paul Marquardt), though there's absolutely nothing memorable about the music (whereas Kopp's agreeably languid, mesmerizing music for CLEOPATRA is quite the opposite [and not terribly dissimilar, in its way, from what John Scott would compose for the Charlton Heston-directed ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA forty-one years later], though it barely makes a nod in the direction of its 1st Century BCE Roman-Egyptian locale). As for POMPEII, its music was written by Roy Webb, though one would think it was a natural fit with Max Steiner, who seemed to have a lock on scoring the Cooper-Schoedsack product at RKO. More's the pity that Steiner didn't get a crack at it, as its turgid 19th century Bulwer-Lytton dramaturgy and Steiner seemed made for each other. On a different note, the below was sent to me by Jim Breig, who unearthed this review by Howard Taubman of an April 2, 1958, performance of Rózsa's Concerto for String Orchestra by the Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie Hall (along with works by Prokofiev, Mendelssohn and Rochberg): "Ormandy offered first New York performances of pieces by George Rochberg, a 39-year-old American; Miklos Rosza [sic], who was born in Hungary almost 51 years ago and now resides in Hollywood; and Serge Prokofieff, who needs no introduction." He went on: "Mr. Rozsa's Concerto for Strings could not raise anyone's temperature. It is glib, eclectic stuff, slickly assembled but without any compelling impulse. It makes a pretty sound, and the Philadelphia strings took advantage of that." Taubman was, of course, entitled to dismiss Rózsa's piece (no one's artistic pursuits please everyone), and at least he didn't disparage it as "movie music in the concert hall."
Last Edited By: A Lee Hern
10/22/08 19:40:08.
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Hank V |
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Instead of this negative stuff from the dark age of critics how about a glowing review for today. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi...2008/10/28/DD1L13OUKM.DTL
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A Lee Hern |
SIN-EMATIC PRAISE | ||
The musical thinking in this score is a canny and powerful blend of the abstract and the cinematic. I don't think that Rózsa Would've been too pleased with the last part, but it begs the question as to whether working in a particularly exacting and constricting medium like film-scoring actually did make him a better composer for the concert hall, a worse one, or whether he compartmentalized his work in each of the two media that neither affected the other, for better or worse. And one wonders whether the reviewer, Mr Kosman, was wrinig from a vantage point of having heard recordings of Rózsa's Violin Concerto (perhaps Robert McDuffue's) before hearing it at the concert, or whether it was an all-new piece to him. |
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Frank DeWald |
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Thanks for sharing this glowing review, Hank. It's a bit sad, however, to read the comment at the bottom that the hall was only half full. I suppose
that's just a sign of the times and not related to the program per se, (which also included a work by the immensely popular Copland). The Harris Theatre in
Chicago has just announced a "buy one, get one half off" ticket deal for the same program, which would imply that tickets for that concert are not
selling especially well. But perhaps the greatest tragedy of all (for me at least) is that McDuffie, Botstein and the orchestra are performing in Ann Arbor
(just 60 miles from me) on November 16 and they aren't doing the Rozsa! My first big chance to hear it live and they programmed the Bernstein
"Serenade" instead!
As for those critics, isn't it ironic that the composer who was once taken to task in Hollywood for being "too Carnegie Hall" is often chastised by the Carnegie Hall crowd for being "too Hollywood"! Even the appreciative and sympathetic review of the new Chandos in the November "Gramophone" spends its first half talking as much about Rozsa's film work as his concert music. But on the other side of the coin, look at those performances Hank keeps posting (where do you find all that information, Hank?). Rozsa's concert music may not be flourishing like John Adams but it is alive and well, thank you! |
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A Lee Hern |
"ONE DRINK'S TOO MANY, AND A HUNDRED NOT ENOUGH" | ||
As for those critics, isn't it ironic that the composer who was once taken to task in Hollywood for being "too Carnegie Hall" is often chastised by the Carnegie Hall crowd for being "too Hollywood"! While this conundrum is at the heart of Double Life, Rózsa doesn't capture it as succinctly as you have here. He was surely not unaware of the irony of his situation, and it no doubt bemused him. I've often pondered where one would begin if one were contemplating a biography of the composer (as book, or on film), as his relatively placid life doesn't offer the sort of built-in angst and theatrics that, for instance, does a considered life of the volatile Benny Herrmann. I came to the conclusion that Rózsa's life hung on this very predicament, one that must have been somewhat unsatisfying to him: give up commerce for art and (figuratively) starve, or accept the mammon of Hollywood and be only an occasional visitor to the temples of high culture where the regular inhabitants go out of their way to make you feel like a stranger. Infrequent filmgoer Rózsa probably never saw John Ford's THE SEARCHERS, but he surely understood how that eyeless dead Indian felt, forever "wandering between the winds." |
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