Bernard Herrmann Albums (16)
'Aldous Huxley's Brave New World'
Release Date 10/14/2008
Tracks 10
Label El
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What The Critics Say
Bernard Herrmann jumped from working at CBS radio to RKO studios in one fell swoop in 1940-1941, courtesy of Orson Welles and Citizen Kane, and managed to earn two Oscar nominations in one year, winning for The Devil and Daniel Webster -- he had the world at his feet, and then blew it by interceding in the dispute between Welles and the studio over the recutting of The Magnificent Ambersons. The only time he returned to RKO over the ensuing three decades was to write and conduct the score for On Dangerous Ground (1951) -- producer John Houseman and production chief Jerry Wald were so unsure about the appeal of Nicholas Ray's movie that they wanted the strongest score possible, and Herrmann was ultimately engaged for the project. This CD marks the first release of the resulting score, retrieved from the only surviving sources, 16" acetates and 12" transcription discs prepared for the composer's convenience, of which the former are the highest quality but were only ever intended to be played two or three times at most, and have also sustained the most damage. The CD's producers apologize profusely for the sound quality at almost every turn, but this reviewer found this disc to be eminently listenable and downright essential listening -- one of Herrmann's more jarring and moving scores, the music for On Dangerous Ground shifts wildly, from the jarring stop-and-start main title theme to the dark depictions of the central character's psyche, in "Solitude" and the extended "Nocturne." Those tracks, and the brilliant "Hunt Scherzo," all make effective use of winds, and the string section of the orchestra, with the latter track anticipating elements of Herrmann's scores for Obsession, North by Northwest, and Marnie -- Herrmann even finds room for a jazz trumpet in one place. The highlight of this score, however, are the sections such as "Blindness" or "The Searching Heart" that utilize the solo vioa d'amore, played by Virginia Majewski, some of Herrmann's most moving, subtle, and finely textured writing for film -- despite the shortcomings of the source material in terms of noise, those tracks come out beautifully here, and bear repeated listening; one comes away not at all surprised that Herrmann insisted on Majewski's getting an on-screen credit. This limited-edition CD is essential listening for any fan of Herrmann, and a must-own item for anyone who has ever listened on a serious level to any of his music, or for more general fans of film noir, of which the movie is considered a classic; the producers have even managed to retrieve a set of alternate takes and unused sections of the soundtrack, and appended them after the main body of the piece. The annotation is extremely thorough, providing not only a detail sketch of Herrmann's life and career up to that point but also a detailed pre- and post-production history of the film. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
'Joy in the Morning'
Release Date 1/1/2002
Tracks 29
Label Film Score Monthly
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What The Critics Say
They say that good things come in small packages, and this CD would seem to be the musical proof of that statement -- certainly there are few more unassuming releases in Bernard Herrmann's output. Joy in the Morning is one of the more obscure movies ever scored by Herrmann and, as is pointed out in the notes by Christopher Husted, it was also the composer's last successfully completed major studio project, coming just ahead of the calamity that attended his work for Alfred Hitchcock on Torn Curtain. It has fallen between the cracks across the years, principally because the movie itself was a good deal less stellar than most of the Hitchcock projects (or, for that matter, the Ray Harryhausen projects) with which Herrmann distinguished himself in the early/mid-'60s. This CD is astonishingly good, however, being not only a close cousin to Herrmann's music for Hitchcock's Marnie (1964) but also containing thematic material in common with his clarinet quintet Souvenirs du Voyage, and string writing that also recalls his work for Vertigo and even Psycho, as well as writing for the reeds and winds that have echoes as far back as Beneath the 12-Mile Reef and The Day the Earth Stood Still. And there are even brief passages that distantly recall The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and the "Miser's Waltz" from The Devil and Daniel Webster. Apart from a title song written by Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster (and sung by co-star Richard Chamberlain), the music is all Herrmann, and first-rate Herrmann, too, even if it isn't too far removed from other, better-known scores. Herrmann conducted as well as wrote the music for Joy in the Morning (based on a novel by Betty Smith), and his involvement with the project, in late 1964, coincided with his own divorce from his wife of 15 years, in an action initiated by her amid much bitter acrimony, including restraining orders and other judicial caveats. Husted doesn't venture an overt guess as to the effect that all of this turmoil had on Herrmann, but the exposed, unmixed music on this CD seems to speak for itself, one of the most heartfelt scores in Herrmann's entire output as well as one of the most beautiful, with passages that are as gorgeous and profoundly moving as any of the most compelling works of Arnold Schoenberg (Transfigured Night) or Gustav Mahler ("Adagietto" from the Symphony No. 5). Not that there aren't light, flowing moments as well, but they're a bit less easy to find in what seems to be a sibling to the darker, more regretful sections of Vertigo and Marnie. The technical quality of the disc is superb, mastered in a crisp discreet stereo with as full a range as one could hope for, and not even the brief Chamberlain vocal interlude and conclusion interferes with the enjoyment of the main body of the score. Indeed, on this one occasion, rather than receiving the presence of a title song with reluctance, Herrmann seems to have embraced Fain's work and incorporated elements of the title ballad in his score. The Film Score Monthly CD is, as usual for their limited-edition issues, restricted to 3,000 copies pressed, which means that anyone interested should grab any copy that crosses their path, no questions asked -- this is essential listening for anyone who cares about film music, classical music, Bernard Herrmann's work, or just plain great music. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
'Battle of Neretva'
Release Date 1/22/2001
Tracks 11
Label Fifth Continent Music
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'Jane Eyre/A Streetcar Named Desire'
Release Date 6/6/2000
Tracks 23
Label Soundtrack Factory
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What The Critics Say
The 1954 20th Century Fox feature film The Egyptian is unique in cinema history for its combination of music-composition talents -- both Bernard Herrmann and Alfred Newman composed the score, which was the most successful component of the film. Not that some Hollywood scores didn't incorporate the work of two or more composers, but Herrmann was notoriously reticent to mix his work with that of anyone else, and the idea of two men of Herrmann's and Newman's stature collaborating was unusual. An attempt at a serious historical drama, and more character-driven than a lot of other costume movies of the era, The Egyptian was a box-office bomb on which a tremendous effort had been expended, not least on the music. Newman wrote a little less than half of the actual score and devised thematic material that Herrmann used as the basis for part of his contribution. The two composers' work is, on one level, rather truncated, as each knew that he would be sharing the broader canvas with the other. Individually, the tracks are fascinating, and each displays some of the best attributes of the two men's work, including Herrmann's extensive use of instrumental timbres, especially in the winds and reeds, to make individual sections of the score memorable; his best part of The Egyptian is the seven-minute "Nefer-Nefer-Nefer," a finely developed piece for chamber orchestra. One can also hear thematic material that he later reshaped, in subsequent scores, into new pieces -- "The Deed" contains the roots of material that later underscored the climactic section of Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451, while "Violence" has components that later found voice, in other forms, in Herrmann's score for Obsession as well as in some of his work for Ray Harryhausen's fantasy films. Newman's portion of this score has never seemed as distinguished as Herrmann's -- both composers were very much under the gun, but particularly Newman, and in the end his melodic gifts failed him somewhat; the fact that he relinquished orchestration duties (one of Newman's most distinctive strengths) muted his contribution even further. This new recording by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra (led by William T. Stromberg) does give the music greater dignity, elegance, and power than the older original-soundtrack LP, which contained only about 40 minutes of music, much of it re-recorded after the fact. One still gets the impression, though, that the producers are making slightly more out of the music than its actual merits suggest is appropriate. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
'Torn Curtain: The Unused Score'
Release Date 6/2/1998
Tracks 31
Label Varese
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What The Critics Say
Alfred Hitchcock's film Torn Curtain had two scores written, but only one was used. The music heard in the film was written by John Addison, but an alternate score by famed cinematic composer Bernard Herrmann has also been released on CD no less than three times, Alfred Hitchcock's Torn Curtain: The Unused Score. The legend of the scores is that Herrmann refused to craft his composition toward the director's and studio's preferred pop direction. After an amazing nine efforts, Hitchcock and Herrmann parted ways after collaborating on some of the most famous soundtrack music of all time, including that for Psycho, Vertigo, and North by Northwest. The Addison version is about half as long, probably due to resultant time constraints. "Main Title" is sweeping with some jazzy hints, while "Love Theme" sounds like most upbeat romantic cues of the time. Whereas Herrmann's unused score has moody and paranoid undertones throughout (as befitting a 1966 Cold War drama), Addison's only occasionally repeats those darker motifs. Herrmann's, with so many more cues and subsidiary pieces, provided a much deeper musical experience. So soundtrack fans are presented with a wonderful debate: which score is better? The one used is top-notch, but the unused has cache and a lot more music. While Addison used melody to propel the story ahead, Herrmann chose to forgo Hollywood's melodic conventions to further a brooding mood. The soundtrack to Torn Curtain shows that the tensions between producers and artists is universal and that the corporate needs with regard to film music are probably as old as film itself. Like with Orson Welles' unsuccessful struggle to make The Lady From Shanghai (and its music) more alienating and frightful, Bernard Herrmann was unsuccessful in forcing his musical vision upon Hitchcock. The used score is undeniably lesser, but also a good piece of work. The two scores together make for an interesting history lesson for the students of film music. Highly recommended to anyone who studies the craft of film music or Hollywood film production. ~ JT Griffith, All Music Guide
'The 3 Worlds of Gulliver'
Release Date 4/13/1995
Tracks 23
Label Cloud Nine
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'Mysterious Island'
Release Date 7/27/1994
Tracks 12
Label Silva Screen
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