King of Kings
To call Hungarian-born film composer Miklós Rózsa the musical king of historical epics would hardly be hyperbole;Ben-Huralone might have earned him the title. Recorded just two years afterHur, Rózsa's score to MGM's typically grand retelling of Christ's life was a worthy, sweeping orchestral bookend to the studio's previous Biblical-themed success. But its original soundtrack release was another matter: a vastly inferior European recording that crudely cut together but 40 minutes of Rózsa's musical cues. This richly annotated Turner Classic Movies/Rhino Records double-disc corrects that shortcoming (and an early '90s abridged version of the original score) and then some, collecting together for the first time Rózsa's complete MGM studio recordings for the film. Mastered from the studio's original multitracks, the sound is nothing short of spectacular, the sweeping scope of Rózsa's cues a tribute to what often seems a dying art form. Indeed, the melodic themes and dramatic, orchestral thunder here could power a half-dozen contemporary CGI-fueled actioners.--Jerry McCulley