Miklós Rózsa (1907-1995) was a Jewish Hungarian composer who relocated to the USA in 1940, and ended up in Hollywood as one of the major writers of film scores. He was especially known for his work on vast spectaculars such as King of Kings, El Cid and Quo Vadis: “sword and sandal” epics as they were known, and less so for his concert music, although he kept writing for the concert hall throughout his life. 

Nowadays, as those films recede into the mists of cinema history, Rózsa’s orchestral compositions and concertos are keeping his name alive. His string concertos, particularly those for violin and cello, have been recorded several times, most recently by Baiba Skride and Raphael Wallfisch respectively.

Although Rózsa studied in Leipzig as a young man, rather than Budapest, he used Hungarian folk rhythms and tunes in his early works, and that style often creeps into his mature music. It’s most notable in this program in the five-movement Hungarian Serenade, Op. 25, first written in 1932 but revised in...