Erich Kunzel & Cincinnati Pops Orchestra - Rózsa: Three Choral Suites (2005)

Before anything else is said here, it should be established that Three Choral Suites by Miklós Rózsa by Erich Kunzel, the Cincinnati Pops, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is a GREAT album. Telarc's sound captures every nuance of the orchestra and chorus, both being in top form and in complete communion with Rózsa's music. Although said many times over the years, perhaps here more than ever it is apropos: "what a fine orchestra they have there down in Cincinnati." Three Choral Suites by Miklós Rózsa will make a believer out of you.

This is the first time Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops have produced an album of "golden age" Hollywood film music devoted to a single composer. One may wonder why such well-known film scores, namely Ben-Hur, Quo Vadis, and King of Kings, that have so often been recorded, even under the composer, should need to be "reconstructed" as they are here. Toward the end of his life, Rózsa had planned to pull together these works into the form of choral suites for concert use, but died before getting very far with the idea. To compound the irony, Rózsa authority Christopher Palmer, who initiated the Quo Vadis choral suite here, died before he had a chance to put the final changes on his work. Other Rózsa experts, such as Daniel Robbins, Julian Kershaw, Joseph D. Price, and even Kunzel himself, have thankfully remained among the quick, putting these scores into a performable state. These are the first recordings of any of these particular suites, and their inherent qualities fully justify Rózsa's vision in recasting the music in this way, as it is clearly the ideal way to present Rózsa's film music in a concert setting.

The performance is perfectly idiomatic for the style, and the superb Telarc recording provides the sections of the orchestra in a spectrum so well divided it is almost better than being there. There are many highlights, but to cite just one, the "Assyrian Dance" from Quo Vadis has a wonderfully propulsive quality to it -- for once, you have orchestral percussionists who are truly "awake." In spite of the many Grammy awards Kunzel and Cincinnati Pops have picked up over the years, in this case, the Grammy committee should not even wait for the ceremony to distinguish this release -- it is that good.

Review by Uncle Dave Lewis