Announced this week from Tadlow is a complete re-recording of Miklos Rosza's monumental score for El Cid.  Fans of the composer will recall that James Sedares released a smaller set of selections from this score shortly after the composer's death in the 1990s.

Tadlow's release (which will be downloadable or purchased via mail only) will feature 140 minutes of music over three discs.  Nic Raine is on the podium which promises to make this a real amazing musical experience.  The release will also feature a suite of music from Rosza's Double Indemnity. 

Expected release date will be September 1.

To kick off July, I'll revisit some favorite "new to the library" releases for last month.  Specialty labels win out the month in my book with lots of great stuff on tap for fans of classic film music.

Though I thought it was deleted, I was surprised to find the first Big Band Boston Pops release with John Williams conducting available still on CD.  Swing, Swing, Swing features some great orchestral pops swing playing and is notable for the only commercially available recording of the title number coming from Williams' score for 1941.  This is all great listening if you are a fan of 1940s big band music.  The Pops would make several releases of this kind of music under Williams' baton though these particular arrangements seem to have been replaced in later recordings.

The sole new score release that caught me off guard was David Holmes' music for Oceans Thirteen.  This is a score that is reminiscent of 1970s jazzy funk scores of the likes of Schifrin, Bernstein, or Shire.  The sound and ideas are updated slightly, even the recording sounds a bit more like that done back in the 1970s.  It's a bit different from the big Hollywood action scores and the presentation of the score with a few select source cues works perfectly.  Highly recommended.

The other three highlights for the month are limited edition releases.  First off is Goldsmith's score for The Satan Bug.  Though Film Score Monthly places lots of disclaimers on their website and at Screen Archives that there are sound effects and other sounds, this is a great release of classic 1960s Goldsmith and is worth adding to your collection.  Don't let the disclaimers keep you from enjoying this fairly accessible score.

Though not as amazing as Tadlow's release of Rozsa's The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes.  Intrada's premiere re-recording of his Spellbound is one of the year's highlights.  This is a score that is perhaps better known than the other and people will be astounded here at the way the orchestra is able to approximate the sound of Rozsa's 1940s film orchestra.  The sound is not quite as lively as the Tadlow release, but that is not enough to keep you from grabbing up this classic film score.

Catching me off guard in my review pile was Intrada's special collection release of 1968's The Devil's Brigade.  The Alex North score is a delightfully orchestrated mixture of Spartacus and Viva Zapata that has a close cousin in Bernstein's score for The Great Escape at times.  The score is unified through the use of "Scotland the Brave" and a brassy main theme.  The orchestral writing is similar to that of American Symphonists in the 1950s, especially Creston and Dello Joio.