The undisputed king of the epic, Rózsa's music exudes endless grandeur. As this collection's title acknowledges, it will always be with Ben Hur that he's most inseparably associated. The sheer scale of the project coupled with his impossibly brilliant fanfares and processionals keep it above the numerous other historical epics in his career. Others spread across the two discs include El Cid, Sodom and Gomorrah, King of Kings, Julius Caesar and Quo Vadis. Down a rung in terms of full-on bombast are Providence, Beau Brummell, All the Brothers were Valiant and Madam Bovary. Somewhere in-between, both in terms of scale and popularity, were his fantasy epics. The Thief of Bagdad and The Golden Voyage of Sinbad are the two greats respectfully condensed into the best suites on the collection. And if anything might challenge Ben Hur for popularity it would be Hitchcock's Spellbound, which inspired this concert suite and helped introduce the theremin to the world. --Paul Tonks

Everlasting music., 01 Feb 2008
This was my first Miklós Rózsa's album, and such a discovery! Since that day, I have been searching for every piece of music composed by him. A classical musician, with distinctive Hungarian idioms, that wrote magnificent soundtracks like Ben-Hur, El Cid and Quo Vadis. Sadly, aged copies of these films on TV tend to lose the brightness of the original music, and they sound "from behind the scene". Don't miss this disc, it will open your ears.