Ivanhoe

Label: Intrada    
Catalogue No: MAF 7055D

Release Date: 1994
Total Duration: 61:49

UPC: 7-2025-87055-2-5
Sinfonia of London conducted by Bruce Broughton

IVANHOE is the archetypal Miklos Rozsa historical score. A medieval pageant full of glorious, rousing themes. It is an ambitious subject for a re-recording, not least because it contains the lengthiest and most complex battle music which Rozsa ever scored – for the sequence displaying the storming of Torquilstone Castle. It is wonderful to have such a fine new recording of the score – the first full length re-recording of a Rozsa score for many years. The original soundtrack on MGM E179 contained only five excerpts from the score, whilst a not too successful recording of the Prelude / Finale was issued as part of Charles Gerhardt’s classic film scores series.

There are four major themes. Ivanhoe’s heroic theme is given a resplendent treatment in ‘Prelude’ but it is in the numerous variations that the theme is heard at its best, such as the chorale style version which immediately follows the main titles. Rozsa composed a magnificently menacing theme, full of growling brass, for the Normans and for Ivanhoe’s main antagonist Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert (villains had classy names in those days). The theme for Rebecca is in Rozsa’s distinctive melancholy romantic style but as attractive as that melody is, it is eclipsed by the heart-rendingly beautiful theme for Ivanhoe’s true love Lady Rowena. The Torquilstone Castle sequence contains about twenty minutes of music in four separate tracks, but it is the lengthy ‘Battlement’ and ‘Saxon Victory’ tracks which unleash the most savage and dynamic music in the score as the Norman and Saxon armies fight for dominance.

One of the finest cues is ‘Challenge’ in which Bois-Guilbert’s theme is heard in funereal style as he accepts Ivanhoe’s challenge, following on from which Ivanhoe’s theme is given a full orchestral statement and is played out on a tremendous crescendo. This cue leads to the finale and end titles. The word spectacular has become something of a cliché when used to describe Rozsa’s music, but no other word adequately describes the ‘Finale’ or the complete score for that matter.

Almost every note of music from the film has been included in this recording. The only omissions are some brief fanfares and the introduction of the brass and percussion fanfare for King Richard’s first appearance. The omission is understandable, because it is a brief stand-alone piece and is repeated in the ‘Finale’ although unfortunately in less vigorous form. Bruce Broughton and the Sinfonia of London perform wonderfully, even they do not attain the same authority that Rozsa brought to the original soundtrack. Lady Rowena’s theme, for example, does not contain the same sensitivity and the tempo seems slower. Nevertheless, this is still a magnificent interpretation of IVANHOE and belongs in every soundtrack collection as a reminder of one of the great film scores of the past.