Bernard Herrmann: The Essential Film Music Collection

by Bernard Herrmann

Overview

Listening to any of legendary composer Bernard Herrmann's 48 film scores immediately presents the listener with the difficult task of deciphering the era from which it has been extracted. Herrmann managed to completely avoid the trappings of the pop culture compass throughout his four decades in the business, building a library of music that could be applied to films far into the future without the slightest hint of mustiness -- even Citizen Kane, his first foray into the world of film sounds as contemporary as anything by James Horner, Hans Zimmer, or Thomas Newman. Unfortunately, Silva America's two-disc, 28-track Essential Film Music collection, which allows listeners to sample some of the composer's finest work without investing in each and every "complete" score, is performed by the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, not taken from the original recordings. There is not a misplaced note anywhere to be found amidst the towering themes to the "Seventh Voyage of Sinbad," "Ghost and Mrs. Muir," "Vertigo," and "Taxi Driver," and not a composer yet busy in the world who has met the challenges that he set, but it sure would be nice to have a collection of this scope that featured Herrmann's original soundtrack versions. ~ James Christopher Monger

Product Details

Release Date:	09/05/2006
Label:	Silva America
UPC:	0738572120825
Rank:	41097

Tracks

Disc 1

1. Citizen Kane, film score~Overture
2. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, film score~Prelude / Finale
3. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, film score~Nocturne
4. On Dangerous Ground, film score (1951)~Suite
5. The Day the Earth Stood Still, film score~Suite
6. The Snows of Kilimanjaro, film score~Romance
7. The Snows of Kilimanjaro, film score~Memory Waltz
8. The Trouble with Harry, film score~A Portrait of Hitch
9. The Man Who Knew Too Much, film score~Prelude
10. The Naked And The Dead, film score~Prelude
11. Vertigo, film score~Prelude / Nightmare
12. Vertigo, film score~Scene D'Amour
13. Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, film score~Main Title

Disc 2

14. North by Northwest, film score~Prelude
15. North by Northwest, film score~Conversation Piece
16. The Three Worlds of Gulliver, film score~Overture
17. The Twilight Zone, series theme (first year)
18. Psycho, film score~Suite
19. Mysterious Land, film score~Prelude / The Balloon
20. Mysterious Land, film score~Giant Bees / The Giant Crab
21. Cape Fear, film score~Suite
22. Jason and the Argonauts, film score~Prelude
23. Marnie, film score~Prelude & Farewell
24. Torn Curtain, film score~Suite
25. Fahrenheit 451, film score~Excerpt
26. Work(s)~Twisted Nerve
27. Obsession, film score~Excerpt
28. Night Piece, suite from "Taxi Driver," for saxophone & orchestra (arr. by Christopher Palmer)~Night Piece for Saxophone and Orchestra

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Bernard Herrmann   Primary Artist
Prague Philharmonic Orchestra   Primary Artist
City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra   Orchestra
Nic Raine   Conductor
James Fitzpatrick   Conductor
Rick Clark   Sequencing
Paul Bateman   Conductor
Gareth Williams   Whistle (Human)

Technical Credits

Peter Compton   Release Coordinator
Rosilda de O. e Silva   Executive Producer
Damien Doherty   Artwork,Design
John Waxman   Manuscript Coordinator
Jan Holzner   Assistant Engineer
Christopher Palmer   Arranger
James Fitzpatrick   Producer
David Stoner   Release Coordinator
Mike Townend   Arranger
Reynold da Silva   Executive Producer
John W. Waxman   Manuscript Coordinator
Bernard Herrmann   Composer,Arranger
John Luard Timperley   Engineer
Gareth Williams   Editing,Arranger,Mastering
David Wishart   Liner Notes