February 4, 2011

  • Review: New Rozsa Orchestral Music Release

     

    Rozsa: Hungarian Sketches/Cello Rhapsody

    Mark Kosower, cello. Budapest Symphony Orchestra MAV/Mariusz Smolj
    Naxos 8.572285
    Total Time:  57:06
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

     

    Miklos Rozsa’s place in musical history would be secure if only his music from Ben-Hur was his sole output.  That film score came at the height of the composer’s time with MGM and after he had firmly established himself as the perfect film noir composer.  Historical epics would be important in Rozsa’s career and his attention to meticulous research and musical detail is often what sets these scores as prime achievements of their kind.  Rozsa, like other prominent Hollywood emigrant composers, also left a large body of concert work  which continues to be represented on CD, especially since the centenary of his birth.  Naxos has released one chamber music disc and two orchestral discs of which this latest one is the third.

    Conductor Mariusz Smolj’s earlier release featuring the Viola Concerto is simply one of the best Rozsa releases featuring a quite gorgeous work.  These recordings were made a while ago, but that should not be worth hesitation.  For this release, Smolj balances early and mid-career works. 

    The earliest work represented here is the Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 3 (1929).  This beautiful work, played superbly by Mark Kosower of the Cleveland Orchestra, is filled with lyrical melodies beginning with the opening cello solo.  An arch-form piece, the Rhapsody is a good representative of early Hungarian orchestral music with those ethnic rhythmic ideas alongside a more traditional European orchestral sound.  The work was Rozsa’s first published piece and it receives a dedicated performance here in what is one of the examples of the composer trying to discover his unique voice.

    The disc opens with what is one of Rozsa’s strongest concert works, 1956’s Overture to a Symphony Concert, Op. 26a.  Apart from its poor title, the work is a perfect example of the composer’s strong melodic writing and semi-modal style heard in his biblical epics.  The opening contrapuntal fanfare grabs the attention and the work continues its strong emotional pull throughout.  Pure concert music does not get quite as good as this and its accessibility should help make it a good repertoire piece.  The other later work was composed on through a commission arranged by Eugene Ormandy.  The Notturno ungherese, Op. 28 premiered with Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra in the 1963 concert season and is a work of quiet beauty (those gorgeous melodies could have come from King of Kings), though with a fabulously eerie climax.  (The piece is actually connected to a project to create new music of a more tranquil variety primarily for Howard Hanson’s students at the Eastman Rochester School and later expanded to encourage contemporary works for other regional orchestras.)

    The last, and most substantial work on the disc, is the three-movement Hungarian Sketches, Op. 14.  The work was intended to pay homage to his homeland and this is accomplished through three distinct miniatures.  The opening “Capriccio” features changing meters and that at times seem a bit influenced by Stravinsky’s Firebird.  The following “Pastorale” is a great example of Rozsa’s orchestration.  It features two themes as well and these move through perfect tone painting of which one highlight is the depiction of birds “singing” in three different keys.  The final “Danza” is a study in rhythm with three primary sections a sort of fast dance, a more stable peasant dance and an exciting fanfare conclusion.

    The performances by the Budapest orchestra are well-captured and there is a real shaping of the music here that shows a dedication from all concerned.  The acoustic is also quite warm and the program helps to create plenty of contrast.  Fans of Rozsa’s music will surely enjoy hearing some of the same musical gestures in these concert works that would become hallmarks of his style in his film music.  It would be quite fascinating to hear the orchestra perform some of Rozsa’s film works as well but these are highly recommendable performances.