Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Miklos Rozsa

A Hollywood Bowl Super-concert on “Picture Perfect”

Regardless of how you feel about the current state of the industry or the awards ceremony itself, you have to concede, there’s quite a rich history of impressive music written for film. And the Academy Awards is always the perfect excuse to look back.

This week on “Picture Perfect,” I’ll be leaning heavily into the nostalgia, as virtually every major composer from the golden age of Hollywood comes together at the Hollywood Bowl for a concert of now-classic film scores, originally broadcast on CBS Television in 1963. The event is often referred to as “the greatest film music concert in history.”

Participants included, among others, Alfred Newman (“How the West Was Won”), David Raksin (“Laura”), Alex North (“Cleopatra”), Johnny Green (“Raintree County”), Franz Waxman (“A Place in the Sun”), Bernard Herrmann (“North by Northwest”), Dimitri Tiomkin (“High Noon”), and Miklós Rózsa (“Ben-Hur”). They were joined by Mahalia Jackson, Andy Williams, and Jack Benny!

An album was released on LP, but understandably the three-hour concert was severely truncated. This was somewhat remedied on a CD-reissue on the Columbia Legacy label in 1995 that included 70 minutes of music. Among the casualties, however, was Elmer Bernstein conducting the theme to “The Magnificent Seven.” I will perform a service to film music by restoring that cut from another source.

Based on my reading and the fact that I’m finding other selections in my personal library that were recorded at the venue on the same date, there’s still much that remains to be compiled. Put out whatever you’re holding back on a double-disc, please, Sony Classical!

Hollywood couldn’t assemble this much musical talent today if it tried. Fortunately, recordings like this one endure. I hope you’ll join me for “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX Classical Oregon!

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Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:

PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – Saturday at 11:00 AM EDT/8:00 AM PDT

THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT

Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu

March 13, 2026
Cinematic Beauty Patches on “Picture Perfect”

Beauty patches are back!

This week on “Picture Perfect,” it’s an hour of lace and licentiousness, with music from movies set during the reign of Charles II.

“Restoration” (1995) features quite the cast, with a pre-“Iron Man” Robert Downey, Jr. as a young doctor torn between duty and debauchery. He succumbs to the latter at the court of Charles, played by Sam Neill, before finding redemption as he battles the Great Plague and braves the Fire of London. The film also stars David Thewlis, Polly Walker, Meg Ryan, Ian McKellen, and Hugh Grant. The main title of James Newtown Howard’s score takes its impetus from Henry Purcell’s “The Fairy Queen.” And indeed there are baroque inflections throughout.

George Sanders plays Charles in “The King’s Thief” (1955). Edmund Purdom is a highwayman who pilfers an incriminating book from David Niven. An aristocratic schemer, Niven will stop at nothing to get it back. The swashbuckling score is by Miklós Rózsa.

I don’t recall Charles making an appearance in “The Draughtsman’s Contract” (1982), Peter Greenaway’s saucy, though strangely aloof, Restoration opus. However, there is plenty of licentiousness and an abundance of outlandish wigs. And, it being a Greenaway film, it is certainly strange in more ways than one. Michael Nyman’s score puts a minimalist spin on baroque sources.

Finally, “Forever Amber” (1947) is based on a then-scandalous novel by Kathleen Winsor, about an ambitious young woman’s rise through the bedchambers of the Royal Court. The film was directed by Otto Preminger. Linda Darnell is Amber. Once again, George Sanders plays Charles, eight years before reprising the role for “The King’s Thief.” Cornel Wilde, Richard Greene, and Jessica Tandy are also in the cast. Philadelphia-born composer David Raksin, he of “Laura” fame, plays fast and loose with music of the era.

Bwoo-hoo-hoo-hoo! It’s so naughty! Everyone, giggle into your handkerchiefs and wear ribbons on your shoes. We’ll be powdering our faces and going heavy on the rouge, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX Classical Oregon!

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Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:

PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST

SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – Saturday at 11:00 AM EST/8:00 AM PST

THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST

Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu

February 27, 2026
Music Propels the Action on “Picture Perfect”

This week on “Picture Perfect,” we take flight with music from movies about airports and airplanes.

In the original “Airport” (1970), producer Irwin Allen established the prototype for disaster movies of all stripes by placing an all-star, aging cast in spectacular peril. Burt Lancaster! Dean Martin! George Kennedy! Jean Seberg! Jacqueline Bisset! Helen Hayes! The list goes on and on, longer than the longest runway. The bongo-laden theme is by veteran film composer Alfred Newman,” from the last of his over 200 scores.

Another movie with something of the same feel is “The V.I.P.s” (1963), allegedly inspired by the real-life love-triangle of Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, and Peter Finch. The story is set at London Heathrow Airport, where flights are delayed because of a dense fog. The film was written by Terrence Rattigan and the parts cast from another laundry list of stars, including Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Louis Jourdan, Maggie Smith, Rod Taylor, and Orson Welles, with Margaret Rutherford in an Academy Award-winning performance. The music is by Miklós Rózsa.

By contrast, Steven Spielberg’s “The Terminal” (2004) is an (intentionally) comic take on the predicament of a hapless Eastern European who finds himself in a kind limbo, trapped in an international arrivals terminal in New York, after his country erupts into civil war, so that his passport and other documentation are no longer valid. His plight mirrors that of real-life Mehran Karimi Nasseri, an Iranian who lived for 17 years in a terminal at Charles de Gaulle Airport.

Tom Hanks plays the unfortunate traveler, who makes the terminal his home, and Catherine Zeta-Jones the airline attendant with whom he strikes up a relationship. The music is by regular Spielberg collaborator John Williams (whose 94th birthday it is on Sunday), and I think you’ll find it quite different from the Williams known for his work on “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones.”

Finally, we’ll turn to the Alfred Hitchcock thriller “North by Northwest” (1959), a film in which Cary Grant encounters love and danger in, on, and from a variety of planes, trains, and automobiles. Planes are particularly significant. During the course of the film, it’s revealed that the title is in reference to a Northwest Airlines flight; Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint) must do all she can to avoid getting on a plane with Phillip Vandamm (James Mason); and of course, Roger Thornhill (Grant) flees from a strafing crop duster. Bernard Herrmann’s opening fandango propels us into the adventure.

FUN FACT: The film’s most iconic scene (pictured) is actually played without music.

Rush more to Rushmore! Music propels the action on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX Classical Oregon!

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Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:

PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST

SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – Saturday at 11:00 AM EST/8:00 AM PST

THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST

Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu

February 6, 2026
Film noir on “Picture Perfect”

This week on “Picture Perfect,” as the shadows lengthen, we revisit the world of film noir, a genre notoriously slippery to define, but easy to know when you see it – with its long shadows and moral ambiguities; cock-eyed camera angles and snappy repartee; isolation and innuendo. It’s a genre wherein a pair of gams is an invitation to the gallows; wherein a man’s best friend – and sometimes his worst enemy – is his Colt .38, wherein only cigarettes and bourbon can ease the pain.

The labyrinthine mystery at the heart of “The Big Sleep” (1946) is so disorienting, even the book’s author, Raymond Chandler, couldn’t tell whodunit. Who cares? Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall get some more steamy dialogue to satisfy fans of “To Have and Have Not,” and there’s plenty of Bogie pounding the pavement and tossing off tart one-liners in pursuit of the truth. But my favorite scene involves Dorothy Malone, who runs the hottest bookstore in town.

Whenever there are gallows to be built or gangsters to be beaten, Warner Bros. could be counted on to assign Max Steiner.

“Touch of Evil” (1958) is often considered to be the last of the classic noirs. Yet another brilliant feature by Orson Welles, it was taken out of the master’s hands and re-edited by the studio. The film was restored only in 1998, to bring it closer to Welles’ original design.

If you can get past Charlton Heston as a Mexican, “Touch of Evil” is one of the director’s best films. Welles himself is unforgettable as corrupt police captain Hank Quinlan. He’s joined by Janet Leigh, Joseph Calleia, Akim Tamiroff, and Marlene Dietrich, against a rogues’ gallery of memorable hoodlums and lowlifes.

The film is celebrated, for, among things, a sustained and fluidly-executed tracking shot, which spans over three minutes – an eternity in film – documenting two threads of overlapping action. The score, by Henry Mancini, is equally arresting, as it often seems as if it’s diegetic – whatever music happens to be playing on a radio or in a nightclub – lending its own counterpoint to the seedy drama.

“Chinatown” (1974) is one of the best of the neo-noirs of the 1970s. Jack Nicholson plays private dick J.J. Gittes, who takes on a seemingly routine case that begins to spiral out of control. When producer Robert Evans rejected Philip Lambro’s original score, Jerry Goldsmith stepped in as a last-minute replacement. The composer was hired with the understanding that he had only ten days to write and record new music. For his effort, Goldsmith received an Academy Award nomination.

Finally, we’ll have music by the king of noir composers, Miklós Rózsa. Before he came to be stereotyped for his work on epic films like “Ben-Hur,” “King of Kings” and “El Cid,” Rózsa provided scores for genre classics such as “The Strange Love of Martha Ivers,” “The Killers, “Brute Force,” and “The Naked City.”

We’ll hear an extended suite from “Double Indemnity” (1944). Sultry Barbara Stanwyck ensnares insurance salesman Fred MacMurray in a plot to bump off her husband for the insurance money, sparking an investigation by MacMurray’s boss, Edward G. Robinson. Director Billy Wilder shows how it should be done, in one of the high-water marks of the genre.

Put on your rumpled linen suit, draw the Venetian blinds, and play the sap for nobody. We’ve got a nose for noir this week, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

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Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:

PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST

SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – Saturday at 11:00 AM EST/8:00 AM PST

THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST

Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu

November 7, 2025
Hungarian Music on Sweetness and Light

This week on “Sweetness and Light,” we’ll lend plenty of paprika and poppyseed to your breakfast with an hour of Hungarian delights.

Enjoy a selection from a beloved film score by Miklós Rózsa (you can take the composer out of Hungary, but you can’t take Hungary out of the composer!), a “Hungarian Capriccio” by Eugene Zador (who assisted Rózsa as an orchestrator), some old Hungarian dances arranged by Ferenc Farkas, Hungarian fantasies by Franz Lehár and Franz Doppler, Doppler’s orchestration of a work by Franz Liszt, Liszt’s arrangement of a patriotic melody, and a schmaltzy treatment of a work by Jenő Hubay.

That’s an ample helping of goulash and czardas on “Sweetness and Light,” this Saturday morning at 11:00 EDT/8:00 PDT, exclusively on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Stream it wherever you are at the link:

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

September 13, 2025

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