Music for Stage and Screen

Tonight's programme features three remarkable works by Miklós Rózsa, Zoltán Kodály, and Nino Rota. While hailing from different musical traditions, their works share a common thread: using music to vividly bring stories, characters, and emotional landscapes to life.

The Hungarian-American Miklós Rózsa (1907–1995) is primarily known for his nearly one hundred film scores. Widely regarded as his cinematic masterpiece, Rózsa's score for William Wyler's epic film Ben-Hur is one of the longest film scores ever composed.

In the Háry János Suite, Kodály takes music from his Hungarian folk opera Háry János, based on János Garay's comic epic about a veteran who tells fantastic, exaggerated tales of his heroic exploits in an Austrian army tavern. Kodály intended the opera to bring national folk music to an operatic setting and embody the poetic power of folklore.

Italian Nino Rota (1911–1979) was a composer, pianist, conductor, and academic best known for his film scores, particularly his extensive collaboration with Federico Fellini. Rota was extraordinarily prolific, composing over 150 film scores, as well as operas, ballets, and other orchestral and chamber works. The music for La Strada (1954) comes from the score for Federico Fellini's influential film of the same name.

All three of tonight's composers are celebrated for their ability to create scores that enhance the narratives and emotional depth of their respective source materials. Rózsa's Ben-Hur score powerfully conveys the grandeur and drama of the Roman epic, Kodály's Háry János Suite captures the humour, pathos, and spirit of the boastful soldier's tales, and Rota's music for La Strada underscores the poignant relationship between its characters on their bittersweet journey.

Tonight's concert offers a journey through three distinct musical worlds created by composers who profoundly understood the power of music to tell stories and touch the human spirit.