MIKLOS ROZSA FILM MUSIC. 'Joshua Pierce and 'Dorothy Jonas (pfs); bcynthia Millar (ondes martenot); Utah Symphony Orches- tra / Elmer Bernstein. Varése Sarabande/Silva Screen digital ® 704 260.

The world, the flesh and the devil—Overture; New England Concertoa; Because of him—Overture; Spellbound Concertoab.

Hitchcock's 1945 film Spellbound, which brought the subject of psychoanalysis to the cinema screen for the first time, has never been reckoned among his successes—the Dali dream sequence was memorable, but the casting of Ingrid Bergman was only one of several weaknesses: Miklôs Rôzsa's score for it, however, not only won an Academy Award but has frequently been heard (in parts) on records. The composer's own performance with the original soloist, Leonard Pennario, appeared on Capitol (P8494, 1/60—nla); and the present conductor, Elmer Bernstein (himself a much respected film composer), recorded it with the RPO in 1971 for Polydor. The "premiere recording" claim made on this record refers to the fact that the Spellbound Concerto has now been recast for two pianos instead of one, and expanded to about twice its length by incorporating material from other parts of the original soundtrack. With the greatest respect to my old friend Rózsa, whose piano and cello concertos MM justifiably greeted with enthusiasm (Pantheon FSM53901, 2/85), no one would mistake this for a 'real' concerto: its over-ripe idiom and scoring (including an ondes martenot doing duty for the theremin which the composer had wanted) brand it inescapably as a Hollywood confection. It is, of course, put together with the utmost skill; but except for the vivacious scherzo section I find it decidedly overblown.

Less bombastic in general, and cleaner-textured in its piano writing—which also gains from more forward placing of the soloists—is the other concerto, which is an amalgam from Lydia (a piece of Merle Oberon claptrap involving a blind pianist) and Time out of mind (about a young composerpianist, who in the best Hollywood style gets drunk and wrecks the performance of his concerto), which had in fact been adapted from it musically. This has its weak moments, but on the whole it is the more attractive work. The titlemusic to Because of him, though set on Broadway, is very much in the Central-European romantic comedy tradition; but that to The world, the flesh and the devil (set in New York after a nuclear holocaust) is an object-lesson in how to introduce a last-people-on-earth movie with sentimental overtones. All the performances, recorded in the composer's presence, are most accomplished and spirited. L.S.