Three-time Academy Award winner Miklós Rózsa left his stamp on dozens of classic films, including “The Thief of Bagdad” (1940), “The Jungle Book” (1942), “Double Indemnity” (1944), “The Lost Weekend” (1945), “Spellbound” (1945), “Quo Vadis?” (1951), “Lust for Life” (1956), “Ben-Hur” (1959), “King of Kings” (1961), and “El Cid” (1961).
Less well-known is his later work. This week on “Picture Perfect,” we’ll sample selections from five of the composer’s last seven projects, including “Providence” (1977), “Fedora” (1978), “Last Embrace” (1979), “Eye of the Needle” (1981), and “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid” (1982).
Born in Budapest in 1907, Rózsa studied in Leipzig. He cut his teeth in Paris, where one his friends and associates was Arthur Honegger. Following a concert that had featured works by both composers, Rózsa asked Honegger how it was that he was able to make ends meet. Honegger confided that he supplemented his income by writing for film. Rózsa went to see “Les Misérables,” which Honegger had scored, and became enthralled by the possibilities.
It was following his move to London that he became associated with the Korda brothers and had his first opportunity to write for motion pictures. Rózsa immediately demonstrated what he could do in films like “Knight Without Armor” (1937) and “The Four Feathers” (1939). It was his involvement in the Kordas’ “The Thief of Bagdad” that brought him to Hollywood, since the project had to be moved mid-production as a result of the war. From there, the composer went on to work with many of the great directors, including Billy Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock, and William Wyler.
In a career that encompassed nearly 100 scores, Rózsa was recognized with Academy Awards for his contributions to Hitchcock’s “Spellbound,” the George Cukor thriller “A Double Life” (1947, starring Ronald Colman as an unhinged Shakespearean actor), and of course “Ben-Hur” – all the while keeping one foot in the world of concert music. He wrote important works for Jascha Heiftez, Gregor Piatigorsky, János Starker, Leonard Pennario and Pinchas Zukerman. His “Theme, Variations and Finale” featured in Leonard Bernstein’s legendary debut with the New York Philharmonic.
Rózsa was a towering figure of Hollywood’s golden age, but he lived through some pretty lean times, as emphasis in the industry began to shift away from a classic orchestral sound to what was perceived as a more lucrative, youth-oriented approach, reliant on popular trends. Fortunately, with the extraordinary success of John Williams, in films like “Jaws,” “Star Wars,” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” old school composers like Rózsa were given a new lease on life, and he was able to round out his career with a series of beautiful, wholly characteristic scores.
I hope you’ll join me in examining “Late-Career Rózsa,” on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Saturday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
Rózsa talks film music (and Bernard Herrmann) with André Previn and John Williams
From the same broadcast (“Previn and the Pittsburgh: The Music That Made the Movies,” PBS, 1978), Rózsa conducts “Ben-Hur”
PHOTO: Rózsa (right), with whippersnappers Williams and Previn
