Miklos Rózsa's 'El Cid'

There has been very little soundtrack activity around here lately, so a recent request allows me to fill that gap and also indulge my taste for promo records.

The main attraction is Miklos Rózsa's 1961 score for the medieval epic El Cid, the tale of Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar ("El Cid," i.e., the Master).

Sophia Loren and Charlton Heston

The film starred the not-very-Spanish Charlton Heston and the very Italian Sophia Loren, along with the usual cast of thousands, seen marauding on the cover above.

Cinemascope action (actually "Super Technirama") was just the thing for the Hungarian emigre Rózsa, who had quite a successful career scoring epics and film noir in particular. He could wrote stirring themes and love music of equal quality and does so in this film.

Heston at large

The real story of El Cid is a complicated one that isn't all that germane to the film music. If you want to be confused by his various wars and his allegiances with both Christian and Muslim rulers alike, Wiki has just the article for you. As for the film, I haven't seen it in more than 50 years, so I can't be of much help. The Wiki article on El Cid the film spells the plot out in detail. It notes in passing that producer Samuel Bronston, who had set up shop in Spain, came up with the idea of making the film to curry favor with Francisco Franco, who saw himself as the reincarnation of El Cid.

Miklos Rózsa in the studio

I can tell you that the music is splendid; one of Rózsa's most famous and accomplished scores. For this record - and I believe for the complete soundtrack - he conducts the Graunke Orchestra of Munich, which specialized in recording soundtracks in the 1960s.

Wiki also provides the wonderful anecdote that Bronston first hired Mario Nascimbene to write the music, but wanted him to base it on Massenet's opera Le Cid, which the Nascimbene refused to do. Enter Rózsa, who eventually had his own problems with the producer. I don't hear any Massenet in the score, but then of the composer's 30 operas I've only heard Werther.

The result is a sweeping film epic (I'm told) and a powerful and varied score, a credit to both the director (Anthony Mann) and composer.

By the way, the El Cid LP came in a gatefold cover; the download includes complete scans, as always.

Finally, let me mention that the record would win no prizes for its sound, which was close and harsh, probably designed for maximum bombast on the huge stereo consoles then in vogue. I've adjusted the sonics to be more pleasing to today's listeners (or at least me).

Bonus: Promo Spots

Somewhere along the line I acquired a recording of promo spots for El Cid, which I've included as a bonus. These are 10 to 60 second radio ads that tout the rave reviews for the film (unsurprisingly). They are quite unexciting, but I love this sort of thing and I suspect some of you may as well. At least I tell myself that.

LINK to soundtrack and promo spots

More Rózsa

To go along with the El Cid score, I've revisited two noted Rózsa scores from the early days of the blog. The links below take you to the original posts.

Quo Vadis. The "story of the love of a victorious Roman warrior for a Christian slave girl," says the liner notes for this 1951 epic with Robert Taylor and Deborah Kerr (not my idea of a slave girl). This falls squarely in the epic realm, and Rózsa was entrusted with the music, which he did well. This 10-incher and the following record were both conducted by the composer.

The Red House. IMDb tells us, "An old man and his sister are concealing a terrible secret from their adopted teen daughter, concerning a hidden abandoned farmhouse, located deep in the woods." It's a horror film from 1947, just the sort of thing for Rózsa to break out the theremin he had previously used for Spellbound and Lost Weekend. His recording first appeared on this EP.

Music for 1940s British Films, Plus Songs for a Change of Seasons

Muir Mathieson

This post supersedes and builds on one from the early days of the blog devoted to music from British films of the 1940s. It now is more than twice as extensive - including 16 examples drawn from the best films composers of the era - Vaughan Williams, Rosza, Addinsell, Mischa Spoliansky, Allan Gray, Bax, Alwyn, Ireland, Charles Williams and Arthur Benjamin - all in vintage performances. These come primarily from two albums, as detailed below.

Also today, to mark the transition between seasons, David F. has provided us with two of his fine compilations.

Summer Turns to Autumn

David has prepared a set of songs both for the waning of summer and for the coming of fall - "A Farewell to Summer" and "Autumn Auguries." These total 60 selections by artists known and obscure, as always well programmed and carefully considered. The downloads (links in comments) include David's thoughts on the music and the seasons.

One of our readers recently called his compilations "brilliant" - and I won't disagree!

'Music for Films' - the Columbia Entré LP

My 2009 post was mainly devoted to an early 50s Columbia Entré LP, Music for Films, which was almost entirely composed of British releases of the 1940s. The various recordings originated with EMI, and included performances by the Queen's Hall Light Orchestra as conducted by Charles Williams or Sidney Torch, and the Philharmonia conducted by Ernest Irving.

Here is what I wrote about these recordings a decade ago, much augmented.

The only well-known item on the record is the one American item, Miklos Rózsa's music from Spellbound, here in a performance led by Charles Williams.

The best-known composer represented is Ralph Vaughan Williams, whose beautiful score for the Loves of Joanna Godden was almost unknown until a more recent re-recording. Here the music is performed by the Philharmonia and Irving, the music director of Ealing Studios.

 

Ernest Irving and Ralph Vaughan Williams at a recording session

The little-known composer Allan Gray appears with two very effective items - the memorable prelude from Stairway to Heaven and the theme from This Man Is Mine. These pieces are apparently all that was ever recorded of Gray's film music. The composer left Germany after the ascension of the Nazis, as did Mischa Spoliansky, also represented in the collection.

Mischa Spoliansky

Much of the Entré LP, in fact, is devoted to three pieces by the now little-known (but very talented) Spoliansky. His "A Voice in the Night," from Wanted for Murder, is one of the most effective of the many quasi-romantic film concertos that turned up following the 1941 success of Richard Addinsell's "Warsaw Concerto." The album also contains Spoliansky's music from Idol of Paris and That Dangerous Age.

Lord Berners in repose

Finally, the Entré LP includes the Nicholas Nickleby music from the eccentric composer-novelist-painter Lord Berners (Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson), who wrote concert as well as film music and was a friend of Constant Lambert and William Walton. I don't care for Berners' music, but he cut quite a figure!

'Film Music' - the 1947 Decca-London Album

Like EMI, UK Decca was active in the film music realm during the 1940s. I have included a new transfer of a six-sided 78 album, Film Music, from the London Symphony and Muir Mathieson, the music director for a large number of British films.

Mathieson's set is largely given over to composers better known for concert than film music. It leads off with one of the most beautiful themes ever written by Vaughan Williams - the hymn-like Epilogue from the film 49th Parallel.

Arthur Benjamin

Next is what is possibly Arthur Benjamin's greatest hit - the "Jamaican Rhumba" of 1938, which doesn't seem to be film music at all [thanks Boursin for the tip!]. Benjamin's other popular favorite ishis "Storm Clouds Cantata" (not included here), featured at the climactic moments of both versions of Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much.

Sir Arnold Bax's music for the short film Malta G.C. was one of his few scores for the screen. It concludes with an Elgarian march.

William Alwyn

We return to Jamaica for another well-known use of its music, as captured in William Alwyn's score for The Notorious Gentleman. Neither the Alwyn nor Benjamin pieces were what you would call authentic, but are enjoyable nonetheless. Alwyn was equally renowned for his film and concert scores.

The final composer in this set - John Ireland - only composed for one film, The Overlanders, which involved a cattle drive in Australia. (One wonders how they attracted people into the theaters for that scenario.) Ireland was an uneven composer, and this is not among his best work, although it has enjoyed several recordings, all of which I seem to own.

Bonus Items

Richard Addinsell

The talented Richard Addinsell was not represented on either album above, but I have added two of his finest themes as a bonus. First is the original recording of music from Passionate Friends by the Philharmonia Orchestra and Muir Mathieson, which comes from another Entré album that otherwise does not contain film music. (Parenthetically, I saw David Lean's Passionate Friends a long time ago, and remember it as excellent.)

I also wanted to include perhaps the most popular and influential piece of film scoring from that period - Addinsell's "Warsaw Concerto" from Dangerous Moonlight. Here from the original 78, Muir Mathieson conducts the London Symphony with uncredited pianist Louis Kentner.

As a final bonus, I have included the "Dream of Olwen" music from While I Live, another notable quasi-concerto of the period. The composer was Charles Williams, who conducted several of the works on the Entré LP above. In this recording William Hill-Bowen was the pianist, with George Melachrino leading his orchestra on an HMV 78.

All transfers are from my collection, except for the bonus items, which are remastered from lossless needle-drops from CHARM and the Internet Archive. The sound is good in all cases.

Quo Vadis

I had a request for Miklos Rózsa's original soundtrack LP from Quo Vadis from Gil, who wants to hear the original Roman instruments that Rózsa apparently used for some parts of this recording.

Sure enough, in the liner notes it says that "Dr. Rózsa included in the orchestra many of the ancient instruments that were heard by the Romans during the reign of Nero." (But presumably not Nero's fiddle.)

Roman instruments or not, parts of this score raise quite a racket. And some of it is tender and contemplative. I am inclined toward the latter, myself, but whatever your own preference, you'll probably find something to like.

The sonics are fair, a bit of peak distortion and overloading here and there, but not too bad.

Note (April 2026): this has now been remastered and has improved sound.

LINK to 2026 remaster

Music for Mid-Century British Films

Although this is an American Columbia LP, it mostly consists of recordings of British film music circa mid-20th century.

The only well-known item on the record the one American item, Miklos Rózsa's music from Spellbound, here in a British performance. The best known composer represented is Ralph Vaughan Williams, whose beautiful score for the Loves of Joanna Godden was almost unknown until a recent re-recording.

Also on board are Allan Gray, with two very effective items, and Lord Berners, who wrote concert as well as film music. This is all that was ever recorded of Gray's film music.

Much of the record is devoted to three pieces by the now little-known (but very talented) Mischa Spoliansky. His A Voice in the Night from Wanted for Murder is one of the most effective of the many quasi-romantic piano concertos that turned up in film music following the success of Richard Addinsell's Warsaw Concerto. That latter piece is not included here. However, I have added another Addinsell item as a bonus. It is the original recording of music from Passionate Friends by the Philharmonia Orchestra and Muir Mathieson, and it comes from a different Entre album that otherwise is not film music.

Rozsa's Own Recording of The Red House

The fine film composer Miklos Rózsa made a suite from the music he wrote for the 1947 Edward G. Robinson potboiler The Red House, and recorded it for this Capitol release. It first came out on 78s and then in 1951 on this EP (among other formats).

While the music is not Rózsa's best work, nor is this Capitol's best recording, it is certainly worth your time.

I have to admit that my favorite part of this release is this wonderfully melodramatic (and anonymous) cover, which is redolent of the best contemporary poster art. The title and the cover images may lead you to believe that the film has something to do with clandestine Commies, but not so, according to IMDB.

Capitol packaged these recordings with other EPs containing Rózsa's music from Quo Vadis and Spellbound for a 12-inch recording.

LINK to 2026 remastering