One of the great composers of Hollywood's Golden Age is Hungarian-born Miklós Rózsa.
He first developed his love of music (as well as musical training) from his mother, who studied piano with some pupils of Franz Liszt.
Not long after his time studying at the Leipzig Conservatory, he met the Swiss composer Arthur Honegger, who mentioned that he supplemented his income with film music. (He had just finished music for the 1934 version of Les Misérables.) Rózsa rushed off to the theater to see it and thought, "Film music? What a great idea!"
He later teamed up with Alexander Korda and wrote music for some of his films, including The Thief of Baghdad. Then in the early 1940s, Rózsa began working with director Billy Wilder, writing music for the great epics El Cid and Ben Hur.
The score that best epitomizes Rózsa's film noir style is probably 1945's The Lost Weekend — a seething tale about an alcoholic New York writer named Don Birnam. Listen to the 'Love Theme' from Rózsa's score above.
Saturday Cinema
Tune in to Saturday Cinema at 10 a.m. central Saturday, June 2, as we take a look at more film scores created by Miklós Rózsa and Russian-born composer Dimitri Tiomkin.
Just click on the Listen button below to hear the live stream.
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