Ben-Hur – John Wilson Orchestra
An evening pause: From the 1959 classic movie Ben-Hur, written by Miklós Rózsa. Watch the musicians as they aggressively play this very driving piece of music. Shows that classical orchestra music is far from staid and boring.
Hat tip to Phil Berardelli, author of Phil’s Favorite 500: Loves of a Moviegoing Lifetime.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Most enjoyable, and what a great concert hall! I inherited the Ben-Hur soundtrack on vinyl, and the quality of this performance is every bit as good as the original recording. Thanks, Phil!
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If you search YouTube, you’ll find three more components of this same concert, featuring Oscar-winning scores by Maurice Jarre for “Lawrence of Arabia,” Max Steiner for “Casablanca,” and Eric Wolfgang Korngold’s magnificent suite for “The Adventures of Robin Hood,” treasures all.
Thanks, Phil. it turns out that all three can be found on the Hans van den Berg YouTube channel. The Korngold suite is wonderful, lively and romantic by turns, giving the orchestra a tremendous work-out. I’d love to find it on CD.