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April 18, 2020

20,000 vinyl LP 219: Miklós Rózsa ~ Concerto for String Orchestra

Miklos Rozsa ~ Concerto for String Orchestra

vinyl LP front cover detail
Paul Klee ~ Printed Sheet With Pictures - 1937

detail photo of album cover by Styrous®

Hungarian composer Miklos Rozsa (Miklós Rózsa) was born on April 18, 1907, in Budapest to Jewish parents. He was introduced to classical and folk music by his mother, Regina Berkovits, a pianist who had studied with pupils of Franz Liszt, and his father, Gyula, an industrialist and landowner who loved Hungarian folk music.

Miklos Rozsa

publicity photo - date unknown

Rózsa became one of the brilliant film score composers of his time, however, this album is not from a film. He was also a serious composer of Contemporary music. Rózsa achieved early success in Europe with his orchestral Theme, Variations, and Finale (Op. 13) of 1933.

One of his works, the String Quartet No.1, Op.22 (1950) (link below), was written in honor of actor, Peter Ustinov (link below), who portrayed the mad Emperor Nero (link below) of ancient Rome, in the film, Quo Vadis (link below).

The Concerto for String Orchestra was written in 1943; this recording, which features Carlos Surinach conducting the M-G-M String Orchestra, was recorded in 1957. The orchestra was used in many M-G-M films. This is one of many albums whose cover snagged me into buying it unheard as I was familiar with his scores for films but especially the work of the cover artist.

Miklos Rozsa ~ Concerto for String Orchestra

vinyl LP front cover
Paul Klee ~ Printed Sheet With Pictures - 1937

photo of album cover by Styrous®

The image on the cover of the album is the 1937 painting, Printed Sheet With Pictures by the Swiss artist, Paul Klee. It has influences of primitive cave painting, ancient textiles, African sculpture, and Surrealist art. Klee became interested in non-Western art in the 1920s, and, at an early age, visited the ethnographic collections of the Bernisches Historisches Museum in Switzerland. In this work, his hieroglyphic imagery presents mysterious and elusive forms like a moon woman in profile, a fish, and a black and red mask adorned with horns. In 1937, the year Printed Sheet with Picture was painted, Klee found his work vilified in the Degenerate Art exhibition; his art was also removed from German public collections because it seemed dangerous to Hitler (link below). The work of many Jewish artist and musicians, Kurt Weill (link below) one of them, were in this exhibition,

There was a copy of the score of the Concerto for String Orchestra signed by Rozsa for sale on the Tamino website (link below).