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The Official Bernard Herrmann Thread


Sharkissimo

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10 hours ago, Bespin said:

It's a good option for those who didn't have those CD yet, but don't expect any remastering.  Decca, that means "El cheapo" in plain english.

 

In plain Spanish, you mean.

 

Except for the disc with Obsession, the Decca box doesn't seem to include anything that's not currently available on Australian Eloquence.

 

https://www.europadisc.co.uk/classical/93202/Bernard_Herrmann_-_Film_Classics.htm

https://www.europadisc.co.uk/classical/93203/Cinema_Spectacular.htm

https://www.europadisc.co.uk/classical/93204/Miklos_Rozsa_-_Film_Scores.htm

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  • 3 weeks later...

 

It turns out the new box will be remastered!

 

To celebrate the composer's 110th birthday, Bernard Herrmann's complete film score recordings made for Phase 4 Stereo will be released. All albums have been remastered at 24bit 96kHz from the original analogue master tapes. 7 original albums presented in original sleeves and programming. Features his classic scores for the Hitchcock films Psycho, Vertigo, North by Northwest and Marnie and other thrillers. 7 CD Box Set.

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09242ZMBT/

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23 minutes ago, bruce marshall said:

Herrmann is not well regarded as a conductor.

 

According to who?

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On 5/18/2021 at 6:28 PM, Jurassic Shark said:

 

It turns out the new box will be remastered!

 

To celebrate the composer's 110th birthday, Bernard Herrmann's complete film score recordings made for Phase 4 Stereo will be released. All albums have been remastered at 24bit 96kHz from the original analogue master tapes. 7 original albums presented in original sleeves and programming. Features his classic scores for the Hitchcock films Psycho, Vertigo, North by Northwest and Marnie and other thrillers. 7 CD Box Set.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Film-Scores-Bernard-Herrmann-Box/dp/B09242ZMBT/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=Bernard+herrmann&qid=1621203351&sr=8-3&pldnSite=1

Just to steer this back to topic, thanks @Jurassic Shark for posting this, I think I'll get this as it's a nice collection for the casual Herrmann fan like me who doesn't want to hunt for all these scores individually.

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No hunt needed, as most of the albums are included in the Australian Eloquence releases, although these don't seem to be remastered:

 

On 4/30/2021 at 8:40 AM, Jurassic Shark said:

 

In plain Spanish, you mean.

 

Except for the disc with Obsession, the Decca box doesn't seem to include anything that's not currently available on Australian Eloquence.

 

https://www.europadisc.co.uk/classical/93202/Bernard_Herrmann_-_Film_Classics.htm

https://www.europadisc.co.uk/classical/93203/Cinema_Spectacular.htm

https://www.europadisc.co.uk/classical/93204/Miklos_Rozsa_-_Film_Scores.htm

 

Btw, one of the Australian Eloquence releases are on Spotify:

 

 

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48 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

No hunt needed, as most of the albums are included in the Australian Eloquence releases, although these don't seem to be remastered:

 

 

Btw, one of the Australian Eloquence releases are on Spotify:

 

 

 

I have one of these and was disappointed that it wasnt much different from the regular edition.

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They don't sound bad though.

17 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

It'll be interesting to see if the remasters are able to fix/compensate for the excessive overdrive of the versions I have.

 

Remember these are Phase 4 recordings, intended to sound like the orchestra is performing in your ear.

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28 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Remember these are Phase 4 recordings, intended to sound like the orchestra is performing in your ear.

 

I'm not complaining about the "style" of the sound (in that regard, they sound awesome). But every bass hit sounds like the whole thing has been normalised to 150% and like my speakers are about to blow out.

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4 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

excessive overdrive

 

What does that mean?

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4 hours ago, Thor said:

I feel like there's too little talk about these two albums:

 

THE KENTUCKIAN/WILLIAMSBURG: THE STORY OF A PATRIOT

THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY

 

Both of these are top 5 Herrmann to me.

Both of these are great but The Kentuckian has become one of top Five Herrmann’s. I just love the Charles  Ives inspired Americana music here.

My Top 5

 

1.Vertigo

2.Psycho

3.The Ghost and Mrs Muir

4. Fahrenheit 451
5. The Kentuckian 

 

 

 

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4 hours ago, Thor said:

I feel like there's too little talk about these two albums:

 

THE KENTUCKIAN/WILLIAMSBURG: THE STORY OF A PATRIOT

THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY

 

Both of these are top 5 Herrmann to me.

The Trouble with Harry is enjoyably playful although I never find much else of note in the full score beyond what is in the charming Portrait of Hitch concert suite. Still, the Joel McNeely recording is a fine entry in their series from the 90s. I’ll have to give the Kentuckian another listen. 

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4 hours ago, Jay said:

What does that mean?

 

Bits that have lots of loud low end (excuse the… accidental alliteration) often sound clipped, or more probably like they were a bit too much for the microphones. It's unfortunate, because otherwise the sound is excellent.

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57 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

 

Bits that have lots of loud low end (excuse the… accidental alliteration) often sound clipped, or more probably like they were a bit too much for the microphones. It's unfortunate, because otherwise the sound is excellent.

 

Perhaps you just need better speakers.

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I'm starting to have a nice Herrmann collection, but it's still just a beginning!

 

20210520_151644.jpg

 

The next step would be North by Northwest... the re-recording, but it is not so easy to find, at an affordable price...

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35 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

 

41+FQpEmU7L._AC_SY355_.jpg

 

That's some small speakers.

 

I've got these closed leather-bound ones, among others. Can be used both with Bluetooth and with cable. Good compromise between sound, price, and comfort.

 

71qBM4FdZ9L._AC_SL1500_.jpg

 

 

I've also got an old pair of Creative Aurvana Live! that I'm quite fond of.

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13 hours ago, Bespin said:

I'm starting to have a nice Herrmann collection, but it's still just a beginning!

 

20210520_151644.jpg

 

The next step would be North by Northwest... the re-recording, but it is not so easy to find, at an affordable price...

You are getting there... 

 

 

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23 hours ago, Bespin said:

I'm starting to have a nice Herrmann collection, but it's still just a beginning!

 

20210520_151644.jpg

 

The next step would be North by Northwest... the re-recording, but it is not so easy to find, at an affordable price...

 

Here's hoping Varese put it on for lossless download (at the least). It really is a superb recording and deserves to be widely available.

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2 hours ago, Tom Guernsey said:

 

Here's hoping Varese put it on for lossless download (at the least). It really is a superb recording and deserves to be widely available.

 

Oh it's also on Spotify, I'm just complaining not to be able to put in my CD collection!

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On 5/20/2021 at 2:31 PM, Score said:

 

 

I have a similar top 5, but with Mysterious Island in the place of The Kentuckian (although I don't know the latter yet; just received the Stromberg CD and planning to listen to it in the weekend). Fahrenheit 451 is truly gorgeous, comparable to Psycho under many aspects. Some cues got a bit butchered in the final cut of the movie, but fortunately we have an almost perfect re-recording. 

 

I've always regretted that Herrmann didn't include the exquisite " first snows of winter" music with " The Road and Finale" as part of his 451 suite.

Fortunately the Tribute recording has it.

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12 hours ago, bruce marshall said:

I've always regretted that Herrmann didn't include the exquisite " first snows of winter" music with " The Road and Finale" as part of his 451 suite.

Fortunately the Tribute recording has it.

 

That cue was not intended to be in the movie, in the initial stage. Herrmann's manuscript score does not include it: after "The Road", there is "Finale", and there is a clear indication on how to connect the two pieces into a single one (probably this was added later as an instruction to assemble the suite). "First Snows of Winter" is tracked from the second part of the cue "The Monorail", also included in the Tribute recording, so it was probably a request by Truffaut which took place after Herrmann had finished the composition of the score, and not planned to be there initially. Moreover, the cue "The Monorail" was originally orchestrated in a slightly different way: the glockenspiel line (which gives the piece its "snowy" feeling when attached to the final scene) was supposed to be played by violins and violas - I'm not aware of any recording of this version. So, the existence of that piece must have been a happy consequence of post-production changes. From a strictly musical point of view, I like "The Road" to continue into "Finale", although I am also happy to have the piece in the Tribute recording. 

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I re-published an old article today, about Herrmann's TAXI DRIVER and other "urban-poetic" scores. It's in Norwegian, but I've already run it through Google Translate for you here, so it should at least make some sense, should you be interested:

 

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://celluloidtunes.no/fra-montages-arkivet-arven-fra-taxi-driver-og-urban-musikkpoesi/

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On 5/20/2021 at 8:25 PM, Marian Schedenig said:

The earpads are all dried up, and apparently new ones cost half as much as new headphones, so I'm waiting for a good deal on the K702.

Like this

 

Karol

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4 hours ago, crocodile said:

Like this

 

Something like this - though not from the UK, thanks to post-Brexit taxes. It's been at a similar price at the German Amazon for months (imagine my surprise when I first noticed, having paid about twice as much for my K701). But since it's hardly urgent, I've been waiting for either a special deal or the moment when I decide I'm bored of waiting. ;) 

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  • 1 month later...

Björk apparently named Bernard Herrmann's The Ghost and Mrs. Muir her favourite soundtrack of all time:

 

Björk: "My favourite soundtrack is a Mankiewicz film The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, done by Bernard Herrmann."

 

 

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On 4/30/2021 at 8:40 AM, Jurassic Shark said:

 

In plain Spanish, you mean.

 

Except for the disc with Obsession, the Decca box doesn't seem to include anything that's not currently available on Australian Eloquence.

 

https://www.europadisc.co.uk/classical/93202/Bernard_Herrmann_-_Film_Classics.htm

https://www.europadisc.co.uk/classical/93203/Cinema_Spectacular.htm

https://www.europadisc.co.uk/classical/93204/Miklos_Rozsa_-_Film_Scores.htm

Isn't The Devil and Daniel Webster missing from the Eloquence though?

 

Edit: Oh I see not all the titles are listed on the front cover.

 

https://www.eloquenceclassics.com/files/2016/04/00028948037841-cover.jpg

 

Strange.

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