The Agony and the Ecstasy

Alex North's best-known period-setting film score is the music he wrote for Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus — understandable since that movie was a monster hit — but his music for Carol Reed's The Agony and the Ecstasy may be his finest body of music for a period subject. North worked within the historical framework of the film's story — the battle of wills between Michelangelo Buonarroti and Pope Julius II — composing music that subsumed the musical influences of 15th century Italy within his own style. The result was a brilliantly expressive score that evoked the enveloping passions of the men and the art that they fostered, in a concise and musically dramatic manner. The Varese Sarabande release features a new digital recording of North's music by Jerry Goldsmith conducting the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, which assembles the core and essentials of the complete film music in a succinct, 40-minute whole. The playing is superb; the sound sharp, clear, and rich in tone; and the music is extraordinarily powerful on its own terms, free-standing from the film.