The most famous swashbuckling adventure scores in Hollywood history are those by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, such as The Sea Hawk and The Adventures of Robin Hood; immensely good though they are, equally satisfying are those by Alfred Newman, such as Prince of Foxes, which offers just as much dramatic and compositional depth. It simply has everything a great adventure score should have - massive themes, exciting action music, gloriously over the top romantic material, just everything is here.

The score's main thematic material is presented immediately, in the Prelude. The main love theme is heard in the five-minute "Madonna" to great effect, and is simply gorgeous. Legendarily, Newman managed to coax a sound out of his string section unlike any other ever heard under any conductor, and this is just as notable in Prince of Foxes as in Newman's countless other scores. Just listen to the opening of "Death of his Excellence" to see what I mean - in this instance, the effect is simply soul-destroyingly beautiful. And there's yet more: the rich, noble sounds heard in cues such as "Royal Court" are marvellous, and there's even some extremely silly and delightfull cheesy choral music in "Festival of Spring".

Mention must be made of the sound quality, which is phenomenal, given that the score was recorded in 1949. There is absolutely no evidence of this - very little hiss, no distortion at all - and there really is far, far better sound quality on this music than that heard on many scores recorded in the 1960s and 70s! Even this is attributable to Newman: this was before the days of stereo, but even so Newman had the foresight to use two microphones, one near the conductor's podium, and one towards the rear of the orchestra. This results in a tremendously punchy sound that really is a joy to behold.

Prince of Foxes is an extraordinary score written by a compositional genius, and the godfather of film music; you owe it to yourself to buy this remarkable score.