Gesù di Nazareth
Label: RCA Records
Catalogue No: OST 131
Release Date: 1996
Total Duration: 39:17
UPN: 0-743213-899220
It is amazing to realize how much our perception of what “Roman epic” music must sound like has changed, once we have been exposed to Miklos Rozsa. In many celebrated scores, Rozsa clearly defined this type of music, and, right or wrong, set the standards by which other similar scores have to be judged.
Not that Maurice Jarre’s JESUS OF NAZARETH does not seem appropriate, but it sounds somewhat… well, out of place, at least given the context. Written in 1977 for a television special, directed by Franco Zeffirelli, the score follows the story of Christ, from the “Annunciation,” to the visit of the “Three Kings,” His “Baptism,” the “Beatitudes,” the “Miracle of the Fish,” the “Crucifixion,” and the “Resurrection.”
At first, “Jesus of Nazareth,” the first track on the CD, evokes Rozsa and his own approach to the music. But immediately after, Jarre dispels any notion that his score might follow in the musical footsteps of his predecessor, and the introduction of Ondes Martenot in “Annunciation” takes the remainder of the score into a style that is more reminiscent of LAWRENCE OF ARABIA or DOCTOR ZHIVAGO than BEN-HUR.
In his music, Jarre utilizes several mid-Eastern instruments, like the kitara, santur, uggav, chalil, shofar, tuppim, tziltzelim and chatsotzerah, which confer to the music a touch of authenticity. Of interest also is the reading of “The Beatitudes” read by Robert Powell.
On a purely technical note, the sound quality on the CD is not always up to par, with the EQ quite muddy at times, and some distortion in the loudest passages.
Didier C. Deutsch – Originally published in Soundtrack Magazine Vol.15 / No.60 / 1996
