The Official Bernard Herrmann Thread

[Bespin 8,480]

My Bernard Herrmann basic CD collection is still not at my taste, but it's better than anything (it was anything, zero, in fact 3 years ago!).

 

The re-recording of North by Northwest is perhaps the most missed piece in my collection actually...

 

[Jurassic Shark 12,065]

I love the re-recording.

[Romão 2,274]

1 hour ago, Bespin said:

My Bernard Herrmann basic CD collection is still not at my taste, but it's better than anything (it was anything, zero, in fact 3 years ago!).

 

The re-recording of North by Northwest is perhaps the most missed piece in my collection actually...

 

 

 

The Egyptian re-recording is a absolute must-have, IMHO. One my favorite Herrmann scores (and Newman's, for that matter)

[Jurassic Shark 12,065]

But it's so background musicey.

[Amer 2,099]

Your collection is missing a lot. E.g. The Gerhardt recording, Marnie, Trouble With Harry, NBNW, VERTIGO.... 

[bruce marshall 1,315]

1 hour ago, Amer said:

Your collection is missing a lot. .. 

So, you're saying it's not complete?

 

😎

[GerateWohl 4,357]

22 hours ago, Bespin said:

The re-recording of North by Northwest is perhaps the most missed piece in my collection actually...

At one point I gave up and bought it as digital download, same for the Torn Curtain rejected score.

[Bespin 8,480]

Oh I have it in my FLAC folder... I just want the object AT HIS place on the f***ing shelf!

 

9 hours ago, Amer said:

Your collection is missing a lot. E.g. The Gerhardt recording, Marnie, Trouble With Harry, NBNW, VERTIGO.... 

 

The Gerhardt recording is at his place with all his friends!

 

[Yavar Moradi 2,599]

On 28/5/2022 at 10:16 AM, Jurassic Shark said:

But it's so background musicey.

 

 

 

 

Yavar

 

 

[Jurassic Shark 12,065]

I've got the original recording.

[Romão 2,274]

I absolutely love this theme:

 

 

 

[Yavar Moradi 2,599]

1 hour ago, Jurassic Shark said:

I've got the original recording.

Which edition though? I will confess the FSM edition did little for me when I got it. But I adore the score now and cherish my LLL edition.

 

Yavar

[Jurassic Shark 12,065]

5 hours ago, Yavar Moradi said:

LLL

 

[Bespin 8,480]

Walk like an Egyptian.

 

Purchased!

 

[crocodile 8,005]

 

Karol 

 

 

[Tom Guernsey 2,283]

When entirely innocent searches for cover art go in unintended directions…

 

 

[Yavar Moradi 2,599]

28 minutes ago, Tom Guernsey said:

When entirely innocent searches for cover art go in unintended directions…

 

Haha! But apparently you're unaware of Joe Sikoryak's Dropbox containing all of the FSM covers in at least 600x600, and many of them in 1500x1500!

https://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=114258&forumID=1&archive=0

 

Yavar

[Tom Guernsey 2,283]

44 minutes ago, Yavar Moradi said:

 

Haha! But apparently you're unaware of Joe Sikoryak's Dropbox containing all of the FSM covers in at least 600x600, and many of them in 1500x1500!

https://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=114258&forumID=1&archive=0

 

Yavar

Actually I did remember that afterwards as I have the link saved but not before my amusing diversion into Google…

[Marian Schedenig 8,192]

2 hours ago, Tom Guernsey said:

Actually I did remember that afterwards as I have the link saved but not before my amusing diversion into Google…

 

I.e. hours later?

[DangerMotif 1,037]

Does anyone have this set or have any thoughts on it? I assume it’s Herrmann’s original recordings?

[Yavar Moradi 2,599]

Original recordings? Apart from Obsession (which has been effectively supplanted by a complete release) I believe these are all Herrmann re-recording film music (his own and others).

 

Here’s a good example with him conducting some great Shostakovich film music:

 

Yavar

[Holko 9,520]

On 04/09/2021 at 9:21 PM, Holko said:

I was pretty ignorant of Herrmann in general save for a few general pieces of pop culture absorption, and remedying that was in the back of my mind for a while. This Decca Phase 4 set came at a perfect time, and, though it's "just" a reissue of all 7 albums of his released under this label, it happens to be the perfect overview and thus entry point into his works. Represented here are rerecordings/rearrangements of pieces and suites from his Hitchcock and Harryhausen collaboration strings, genres ranging from thriller to fantasy, sci-fi, romantic or adventure, rerecordings of others' works, as well as a proper OST of one of his last scores.

 

The set is very well presented, a nice sturdy cardboard box housing a booklet with detailed album and track information and a small essay about the composer's career and more important works, and of course the discs themselves in cardboard sleeves that are CD-sized facsimiles of the original LP art, front and back - meaning original liner notes with context and track-by track descriptions are also included instead of being lost to time, forgotten or ignored, which I'm always very happy about. I enjoyed reading along, though the font obviously becomes very small and tough to read - bring a magnifier glass or take a photo and zoom in!

 

The sound is what it is, less busy sections mostly sound pretty good, but in grander parts the brass and percussion can suffer. The performances are all very good of course.

 

Overall the set paints the picture of an artist in his last decade not only caring about preserving and commercially presenting his own legacy (not unlike Williams revisiting his own works in concert, for new albums, and of course the remastered expanded reissues), but that of his other fellow film composers as well. I barely skimmed the tracklist and bought this set mostly blind, but I come away with a much more pleasant mental image of Herrmann than what I had before (based on throwaway remarks and anecdotes), and some killer albums to replay!

 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,516]

For anyone interested, there is a drama on BBC Radio 3, this evening, called "Benny And Hitch". You can probably guess what it's about. It's today, at 19:30hrs., GMT.

[Tom Guernsey 2,283]

36 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

For anyone interested, there is a drama on BBC Radio 3, this evening, called "Benny And Hitch". You can probably guess what it's about. It's today, at 19:30hrs., GMT.

Looking forward to this. Includes live music by the BBC Concert Orchestra too. Should be good. 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,516]

Yeah. Toby Jones reprising his role, from THE GIRL.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,516]

Hmm. Not bad. Not bad, at all. Tim McInnerny let the side down, a bit, but Toby Jones was - as always - brilliant.

The music wasn't bad.

[DangerMotif 1,037]

Is there a cd out there with Herrmann's recordings for psycho?

 

[Amer 2,099]

11 hours ago, Gibster said:

Is there a cd out there with Herrmann's recordings for psycho?

 

Not the original soundtrack recording. But apart from various suites there are two re-recordings of the full score. 
 

One conducted by Bernard Herrmann on the Unicorn Kanchana Label released in 1975 and the other being conducted by Joel McNeely with RSNO on the Varese Sarabande label.

 

The best performance re-recorded to date has to be the Steve Bartek - Danny Elfman produced version for the verbatim 1998 remake. The OST recording is abbreviated (slightly altered performance) but highly recommended.

 

All of these are easily available on Ebay.

 

 

[karelm 2,913]

On 24/12/2022 at 8:33 PM, Yavar Moradi said:

Original recordings? Apart from Obsession (which has been effectively supplanted by a complete release) I believe these are all Herrmann re-recording film music (his own and others).

 

Here’s a good example with him conducting some great Shostakovich film music:

 

Yavar

That's really excellent.  Those of us who are fans of both composers can clearly tell each of their touches in this unique interpretation.  How nice it would have been to hear one of Shostakovich's Symphonies interpreted by Herrmann. 

[Tom Guernsey 2,283]

I have this album but have always been puzzled by the title... quite an eccentric selection of music too. Anyone know any more about it? https://www.soundtrackcollector.com/title/7073/Inquirer%2C+The

[Omen II 1,235]

1 hour ago, Tom Guernsey said:

I have this album but have always been puzzled by the title... quite an eccentric selection of music too. Anyone know any more about it? https://www.soundtrackcollector.com/title/7073/Inquirer%2C+The

 

I have had that CD for the last thirty years or so.  The liner notes explain the title given to the first selection of cues from Citizen Kane, but in case you do not have the CD booklet (and for the benefit of others), the title The Inquirer was devised by the album producer John Lasher.  Bernard Herrmann...

 

"...indicated, during a 1973 meeting, that he was considering putting together a second suite - the first is the famous Welles Raises Kane - from his Citizen Kane music, this one focusing on period pieces associated with Charles Foster Kane and his influence on those around him."

 

This is one of those rather eclectic (you might well say eccentric!) compilations which actually contains a lot of great stuff, either from Tony Bremner conducted recordings and reissues for the Preamble label or from earlier Entr'acte Recording Society LPs produced by John Lasher.  If I recall correctly he even posted here very occasionally back in the day.

 

I sometimes think of Night Digger and Obsession when I attend concerts at St. Giles-without-Cripplegate, imagining Benny barking away at the orchestra in the church where Milton was buried and Cromwell married.

[Tom Guernsey 2,283]

On 08/05/2023 at 8:03 PM, Omen II said:

 

I have had that CD for the last thirty years or so.  The liner notes explain the title given to the first selection of cues from Citizen Kane, but in case you do not have the CD booklet (and for the benefit of others), the title The Inquirer was devised by the album producer John Lasher.  Bernard Herrmann...

 

"...indicated, during a 1973 meeting, that he was considering putting together a second suite - the first is the famous Welles Raises Kane - from his Citizen Kane music, this one focusing on period pieces associated with Charles Foster Kane and his influence on those around him."

 

This is one of those rather eclectic (you might well say eccentric!) compilations which actually contains a lot of great stuff, either from Tony Bremner conducted recordings and reissues for the Preamble label or from earlier Entr'acte Recording Society LPs produced by John Lasher.  If I recall correctly he even posted here very occasionally back in the day.

 

I sometimes think of Night Digger and Obsession when I attend concerts at St. Giles-without-Cripplegate, imagining Benny barking away at the orchestra in the church where Milton was buried and Cromwell married.

Thanks for quoting the liner notes - I do have the CD but it's in storage with much of the rest of my collection which is all on iTunes! Glad I asked as the title of this album has long puzzled me and it just happened to pop up when I was scrolling through my library and I thought I should probably ask as I figured someone would know. I half wondered if it was music from some random score that Herrmann did that has never been released, but a second Kane suite makes more sense.

 

Have to admit that I've never been to St. Giles-without-Cripplegate (gotta love those London place names... a perfect companion to St Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe) but it's a great image!

[GerateWohl 4,357]

Wait. I know two Citizen Kane suites. The one recorded by Herrmann himself, that is on the phase4 album, and the one conducted by Charles Gerhardt on his Bernard Herrmann album. Is there another one or is The Inquirer one of these two?

[Omen II 1,235]

On 10/05/2023 at 1:59 PM, Tom Guernsey said:

 

Have to admit that I've never been to St. Giles-without-Cripplegate (gotta love those London place names... a perfect companion to St Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe) but it's a great image!

 

Here are two photos I took at one of the Summer Music in City Churches concerts last year.  It is a wonderful venue in which to hear music - I am not surprised that Herrmann chose the church as the recording venue for some of his last few scores.

 

[crocodile 8,005]

Finally obtained a copy of this book. Can't wait to dive in.

 

 

Karol

[bruce marshall 1,315]

Its a fantastic biography!

wish HE did one on Goldsmith

[Andy 4,122]

I imagine the Herrmann biography to be juicy because of his reputation for being so ill-tempered.   Knowing that Goldsmith had some demons and a cantankerous side, I would hope any biography on him would not just be a clinical study of his work, but knowing the man himself with all his gifts and human shortcomings.  It’s a way to try to understand the music better by knowing the artist. 

[Marian Schedenig 8,192]

4 hours ago, Andy said:

Knowing that Goldsmith had some demons and a cantankerous side, I would hope any biography on him would not just be a clinical study of his work, but knowing the man himself with all his gifts and human shortcomings.

 

Isn't that in fact the reason why Carrie Goldsmith's biography was shelved?

[Thor 7,494]

19 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

 

Isn't that in fact the reason why Carrie Goldsmith's biography was shelved?

 

Didn't that have something to do with Jeff Bond? Of course, he's since released a Goldsmith book all on his own.

[Marian Schedenig 8,192]

3 minutes ago, Thor said:

Didn't that have something to do with Jeff Bond? Of course, he's since released a Goldsmith book all on his own.

 

Lukas Kendall's intervention was what escalated the situation. But Goldsmith's own comments seem to have been the underlying issue:

https://www.lukaskendall.com/post/the-unpublished-jerry-goldsmith-biography

[GerateWohl 4,357]

Listened to this for the first time. Beautiful suite of the opera.

If you are ok with english language opera. 

This is Herrmann for a change not in his usual abysmal mode but still his typical handwriting. Musically beautiful. You can still hear some Vertigo here and there (like so often).

 

The string quartet is a little boring in my view.

[Jurassic Shark 12,065]

All I want for Christmas is this.