Before arriving in the United States in 1940, Miklós Rózsa made three important stops: Leipzig, where he gained a solid technical background, studying composition and musicology; Paris – it was during this period that his works first began to be heard with some frequency – and London, where he wrote his first background music for the films. Since then Rózsa has composed a long list of memorable Hollywood film scores including those for ‘Spellbound’, ‘Lost Weekend,’ ‘Ben Hur,’ ‘Quo Vadis’ and many others. Concurrent with his work for the screen, he has continued his separate career as a composer of serious symphonic music. Despite the fact that Rózsa, now an American citizen, left Hungary while still in his teens, that country has left its indelible stamp upon his music. Never copying or imitating actual folk melodies and rhythms, he rather absorbed this material and drew inspiration from it so that it became an integral part of his own musical ideas – givimg his music, what Rózsa has termed, an ”Hungarian accent.” The most recent of the three compositions heard on this recording is the appropriately-named Overture To A Symphony Concert, Op. 26\u002Fa. Rózsa long had wanted to write music which could be used as a “curtain-raiser” to a concert and finally composed the Overture in the fall of 1956. The writing of this work coincided with a momentous event taking place in his native country – the Hungarian uprising of 1956. Rózsa, of course, was profoundly affected and stated in his program notes for the work’s world premiere in Düsseldorf, Germany (1957): “The Overture does not express any definite program, though now – a year after its creation – I have to admit that the events of the Hungarian uprising, the tragic and dramatic experiences of the Hungarian people striving for liberation, had a bearing on the character of my music.” That the work was somewhat influenced by the Hungarian revolt is suggested by the composition’s dramatic intensity, its heavy use of brass instruments to signify a martial theme, its clashing harmonies and its alternating moods of brooding sadness and exuberant high spirits. Written in 1938, the Three Hungarian Sketches, Op. 14, was an outstanding success at its premiere at the International Music Festival in Baden-Baden in 1939. Colorful and rhythmic, the work is in three sections: the opening Capriccio, itself divided into three parts; the descriptive Pastorale, evoking an image of the Hungarian plains, and the lively Danza, which, from the opening glissando of the harp to its fast-paced ending, is a skillful blending of three typical Hungarian dance rhythms. Theme, Variations And Finale, Op. 13, was composed in 1933. Ever since its first performance by Charles Munch in Budapest in 1934, the work has been a favorite of some of the world’s top conductors and has often been included in their concert programs. Here, Rózsa makes good use of his knowledge of counterpoint and orchestration, but the most outstanding feature of this music is its emotional appeal. A seemingly-simple theme, first expressed by an unaccompanied oboe, is rhythmically and harmonically developed in an improvisational manner by the entire orchestra in the succeeding eight variations and finale.