pi 0 Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 Did he conduct any of his scores? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lurker 5 Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 "A musicians' strike had prevented the score from being recorded in Los Angeles with Herrmann conducting..."Found here.Neil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
publicist 4,643 Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 Did he conduct any of his scores?There was a musicians strike in 1958, so the sessions were held in Vienna and Muir Matheson conducted. Otherwise, Herrmann did all his conducting himself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hlao-roo 389 Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 Because he was an easygoing, carefree guy who didn't mind my putting his music in the hands of others he openly admitted were far more capable than he. With Herrmann, pride and personal control over his work were never issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Henry B 50 Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pi 0 Posted February 7, 2008 Author Share Posted February 7, 2008 Thanks for the quick answers, this is pure brilliance. What a musical imagination he had. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hitch 57 Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 It's a proven fact that Bennie hated the Muir Mathieson version. I can't imagine why Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jw_researcher 0 Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 It's a proven fact that Bennie hated the Muir Mathieson version. I can't imagine why Herrmann conducted most of his film score recordings. I can recall Vertigo as an exception, and also Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (again, strike issue). I've heard rumors he did conduct SINBAD, but most accounts say it was Kurt Graunke conducting a German orchestra.I think in the case of TAXI DRIVER, he sat out the last sessions and had someone else fill in for him as conductor and he listened from the booth (I forgot the name of the conductor who stepped in).I've always liked the Muir Mathieson conducting, despite Herrmann's objections to it (there are some wrong notes and incorrect entrances, but those don't take away from the overall performance in my opinion). The re-recording closest to Mathieson's, in my opinion, is the re-recording done for the book Feature Film, in a performance remarkably close to the Mathieson tempi and performance (it was done in France, and the CD annoyingly has the entire score on one track on the CD!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romão 2,274 Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 As much as I love him as a composer, Herrmann wasn't much of a conductor... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jw_researcher 0 Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 As much as I love him as a composer, Herrmann wasn't much of a conductor...Well, before 1951, he was a well regarded conductor and championed 20th century and other obscure composers, during his years at CBS. He also enjoyed many guest engagements at orchestras in the U.S. and Britian. I'm not sure I can agree he was a poor conductor, but his later performances I do find rather slow and plodding. His Phase 4 albums from his later years suffered from slower tempi as well.His conducting of his hallmark scores I find breathtaking, so I can't agree that he "wasn't much". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ollie 1,059 Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 For what I understand, for whatever reason, Herrmann prefered to conduct his concert versions/re-recordings slow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robthehand 3 Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 I haven't heard that, but I know he liked to make the re-recordings sound different from the originals. As I understand it he wanted to be better accepted as a "real" composer, and so was keen to make sure that his records didn't "sound like film music". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miguel Andrade 1,263 Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 As much as I love him as a composer, Herrmann wasn't much of a conductor...Well, before 1951, he was a well regarded conductor and championed 20th century and other obscure composers, during his years at CBS. He also enjoyed many guest engagements at orchestras in the U.S. and Britian. I'm not sure I can agree he was a poor conductor, but his later performances I do find rather slow and plodding. His Phase 4 albums from his later years suffered from slower tempi as well.His conducting of his hallmark scores I find breathtaking, so I can't agree that he "wasn't much".I do find his conducting of Holst's The Planets quite scary... Actually the worst performance I have memory of listening to. Jurassic Shark 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jw_researcher 0 Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 That was definitely one of his most criticized conducting experiences that has been recorded. I've not heard the performance, but I've read it was quite slow and plodding. There's a funny anecdote that Herrmann asked for the record in a London store, and the clerk said "we don't recommend it", to which Herrmann apparently reacted badly to the clerk....As much as I love him as a composer, Herrmann wasn't much of a conductor...Well, before 1951, he was a well regarded conductor and championed 20th century and other obscure composers, during his years at CBS. He also enjoyed many guest engagements at orchestras in the U.S. and Britian. I'm not sure I can agree he was a poor conductor, but his later performances I do find rather slow and plodding. His Phase 4 albums from his later years suffered from slower tempi as well.His conducting of his hallmark scores I find breathtaking, so I can't agree that he "wasn't much".I do find his conducting of Holst's The Planets quite scary... Actually the worst performance I have memory of listening to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miguel Andrade 1,263 Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 That was definitely one of his most criticized conducting experiences that has been recorded. I've not heard the performance, but I've read it was quite slow and plodding. There's a funny anecdote that Herrmann asked for the record in a London store, and the clerk said "we don't recommend it", to which Herrmann apparently reacted badly to the clerk....I'm sure he did Anyway, the performance is really terrible. It's not only the tempi that is terribly slow, but all the dinamics and phrasing sound wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romão 2,274 Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 The Planets is main reason why I said Herrmann wasn't a very good conductor (it really sounds bad), but my opinion is in no way techinally based. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hitch 57 Posted February 10, 2008 Share Posted February 10, 2008 Much like John Williams' conducting of Jerry's TMP main titles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miguel Andrade 1,263 Posted February 10, 2008 Share Posted February 10, 2008 Much like John Williams' conducting of Jerry's TMP main titles Not at all... I find the phrasing and the dynamics on the Williams performance quite acurate, or acceptable at least. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pi 0 Posted February 10, 2008 Author Share Posted February 10, 2008 If you look closely at the Vertigo score, especially towards the end or the "realization" scene, none of the musical hits really exactly hit anything. They are close but don't really hit the moments on the money, maybe this was his problem with the conducting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ollie 1,059 Posted February 10, 2008 Share Posted February 10, 2008 Much like John Williams' conducting of Jerry's TMP main titles Not at all... I find the phrasing and the dynamics on the Williams performance quite acurate, or acceptable at least.I'm glad someone does. When I listen to it.............. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurassic Shark 12,076 Posted May 31, 2021 Share Posted May 31, 2021 On 2/9/2008 at 12:07 AM, Miguel Andrade said: I do find his conducting of Holst's The Planets quite scary... Actually the worst performance I have memory of listening to. Scary indeed. On 2/8/2008 at 5:37 AM, jw_researcher said: The re-recording closest to Mathieson's, in my opinion, is the re-recording done for the book Feature Film, in a performance remarkably close to the Mathieson tempi and performance (it was done in France, and the CD annoyingly has the entire score on one track on the CD!) Anybody knows which re-recordings he's talking about? EDIT: I found out it's a re-recording by James Conlon conducting the Paris Opera Orchestra, exclusively for inclusion in Douglas Gordon's book Feature Film. This is the only album containing the complete score. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marian Schedenig 8,193 Posted May 31, 2021 Share Posted May 31, 2021 I still maintain that Herrmann's Planets are eccentric, but not bad. If Williams can do the fastest Mars I know of, Herrmann is allowed to do the slowest. Miguel Andrade 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bespin 8,482 Posted May 31, 2021 Share Posted May 31, 2021 I generally prefer slower interpretations over too fast ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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