Serious Side of Hollywood

Miklos Rozsa was born on this day in 1907 in Hungary. I recently became aquainted with this composer through a radio program. He is best known for his film scores, especially for the 1959 movie, Ben Hur, but he also wrote a lot of serious classical music throughout his life. His classical background and training helped his writing for Hollywood to be of the highest quality.

The piece I heard on this program which intrigued me (and caused me to sit in the car and listen for an extra 20 minutes even though I'd already arrived at my destination), was his Violin Concerto, Op. 24, written in 1953-54 for the great violinist Jascha Heifetz. It's a bit modern sounding in some places, but there are some really hauntingly beautiful and nostalgic moments, especially during the entire 2nd movement (Anastasia Khitruk playing Violin in this excerpt).