IVANHOE

Newly-remastered presentation of our celebrated recording of Miklos Rozsa’s Ivanhoe, played by Sinfonia of London under Bruce Broughton! First released in 1995, this spectacular score served to introduce our Excalibur brand which continues to the day. It was fully constructed and prepared for performance from Miklos Rozsa’s own sketches and conductor scores by Rozsa authority (and close friend) Daniel Robbins with Rozsa assisting the reconstruction and enthusiastically approving of the results. Award-winning film composer Bruce Broughton was engaged to conduct the Sinfonia of London, the legendary orchestra that recorded such esteemed original soundtracks as Herrmann’s Vertigo, Tiomkin’s The Guns Of Navarone and The Fall Of The Roman Empire, Broughton’s Tombstone, Arnold’s Stargate, Elfman’s Batman and countless others. Sessions were held over three days in October 1994 at the famous Abbey Road Studios in London with Mike Ross engineering. Author Tony Thomas provided liner notes on the film and composer with producer Douglass Fake contributing musical notes. Rozsa’s magnificent 63-minute score came to vibrant, spectacular life! MGM’s 1952 film was lavishly directed by Richard Thorpe from Sir Walter Scott’s novel about chivalry and knights in joust and battle during the reign of King Richard following the 3rd Crusade and featured Robert Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor and Joan Fontaine. So well received at the time, Ivanhoe was an Academy Award nominee for “Best Picture of 1952” amongst other awards. Rozsa launched his score with a powerful fanfare, introducing Ivanhoe’s (Robert Taylor) rousing and masculine, angular main theme in triumphant trumpets. For the Saxon knight’s beloved Rowena (Joan Fontaine), Rozsa scored a gorgeous melody with an emphasis on flowing, diatonic lines. In haunting contrast was a darker, tragedy-imbued theme for Rebecca (Elizabeth Taylor), a saddened figure of the oppressed Jews and touching rival for Ivanhoe’s love. In what is surely one of the greatest marriages of two dramatically different themes, Rozsa masterfully welds Rowena’s theme in horns under Rebecca’s tragic theme for strings for the "Finale" before leading to resounding fanfares for both King Richard and Ivanhoe to wrap in triumphant conclusion. Spotlight goes to the central siege of Torquilstone Castle that required 15 minutes of incredibly dense, energetic music scored in two massive parts, amongst Rozsa’s most exciting and difficult action cues of his career. Originally recorded in 24-bit digital audio, the entire sessions were newly edited and mastered in 24bit 96kHz digital format for the hi-res digital download marketplace. Pressings of the CD with new packaging (also fully re-mastered but still locked into the CD’s 16bit format) are being made available for 45 days only as this (and other upcoming Excalibur titles) is moved into the digital download world. Miklos Rozsa composes and supervises, Bruce Broughton conducts the Sinfonia of London.

01. Prelude (2:16)
02. Ransom (3:13)
03. Rotherwood (1:10)
04. Lady Rowena (2:16)
05. Sir Cedric (0:31)
06. Squire Wamba (4:39)
07. Rebecca (1:01)
08. The Intruder (3:44)
09. The Rivals (4:57)
10. Sheffield (0:40)
11. Rebecca’s Love (5:15)
12. Search (1:24)
13. Torquilstone Castle (3:17)
14. Bois-Guilbert’s Bargain (3:32)
15. The Battlement (7:16)
16. Saxon Victory (7:55)
17. Farewell (2:36)
18. Challenge And Finale (6:09)