Customer Reviews

Bernard Herrmann FAHRENHEIT 451 / TWILIGHT ZONE: WALKING DISTANCE SOUNDTRACK

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

1. Folks, this is flat-out BEAUTIFUL music. And it's another one-of-a-kind classic-film score restoration and recording masterpiece from the Messer. John Morgan and William Stromberg. (How do they keep doing this? Topping each of their previous CDs with yet a better one!)

2. Classic-film composer Bernard Herrmann's usual style was to reach out and grab the listener by the forelock. But the music here is seemingly unlike anything previously written for the cinematic screen by Mr. Herrmann. More for concert halls of the future than for art-house movie theaters of the past. Although FAHRENHEIT 451 (1966) is a sci-fi film (or tries to be), Mr. Herrmann's score is far from and far above "typical" sci-fi music from yesteryear or today. It is a breath taking, haunting, and acoustically gorgeous, delicate creation as fully realized on this CD release. The music and the film reside in drastically different universes.

3. This recording is one of the two kick-off releases from a new CD label--Tribute Film Classics (the other release is Mr. Hermann's starling score for MYSTERIOUS ISLAND[1961]). Tribute's star line up is one of a kind: classic-film score Restoration/Arrangement Masters John Morgan and William Stromberg with Maestro Stromberg on the conducting podium for starters.

4. Once again, the conductor is at one with the orchestra (as is his custom). Orchestral performance is superb. It sounds like much rehearsal time (instrumentalist by instrumentalist) preceded the final product. Sound engineering and editing are also first rate.

5. The CD booklet is a special treat. It is extensive and contains at least one surprising revelation. Restoration Master John Morgan's "Recording Notes" kicks things off. As usual, Morgan's contribution makes for a fascinating albeit frustrating read. His description of having to stick together bits and pieces of paper containing Herrmann's original score sheets (the composer had cut the score up--literally--to rearrange and shorten cues for a suite) is fascinating; but Morgan's brief contribution is frustrating (please sir, more!). Kevin Scott's track descriptions are outstanding, but he does tend to wonder a bit off topic and into the academic realm now and then. Ray Bradbury reveals how he got Herrmann his scoring commission for the film shortly after the composer was canned by Alfred Hitchcock (for those only recently returned from a stay in a colony on Mars, Bradbury wrote "Fahrenheit 451" some 13 years earlier).

6. The CD also includes music from a THE TWILIGHT ZONE episode called "Walking Distance." A pleasant bonus.

7. This recording could very well result in not one, but three sell outs--the film-score CD, reprints of the story, and newly-pressed DVDs of the film!

William F. Flanigan, Jr., Ph.D.

I agreed with Bernard Herrmann when he said that film music was not meant to be performed scene by scene for a listening audience, but that the music should be coalesced into Suite structures so that the compositions have musical sense. Listen to Charles Gerhardt and the National Symphony do Beneath the 12-Mile Reef for example. However, the Moscow Symphony Orchestra under William Stromberg give a magnificent performance of Herrmann's music for Fahrenhiet 451! These musicians are listening to the music as they play! And the CD includes unused music as well to give us an idea of Herrmann's full intentions when designing film music. He is THE master of this genre. Mr. Herrmann's orchestrations are perfectly unique in how the sound reflects the world the film connotes and displays. And on a secondary note, the liner notes are articulate and knowleadable.

Quite simply -- awesome!

Bernard Herrmann wrote an amazingly beautiful, lyrical tone poem for Truffaut's film of Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451". Over the years we're heard suites and snippets of the score. Here, at long last, is Herrmann's entire score -- superbly performed and beautifully recorded. This is a pleasure to hear!

A worthy addition to any collection!

At long last, a fantastic, faithful version of Bernard Herrmann's best. If you know the film, you know that the music score was just as ambitious and forward looking as Truffaut's film itself. All the more impressive, I think, because it came late in Herrmann's career. Some of his previous scores were written for films that did not really do justice to his talents. This one clearly does, and it shows. And this recording is damn near perfect! It doesn't give away a thing to the original soundtrack, and the sound quality is fantastic. Fahrenheit fans (and Herrmann fans) would be making a mistake if they didn't get a copy of this. Other recordings of this material are disappointing, this one is great. And the addition of Herrmann's wonderful score for Walking Distance, arguably the best episode of The Twilight Zone, only makes this recording more desirable. Don't miss it!

This re-creation of Bernard Herrmann's score for Fahrenheit 451, along with the bonus recording of Herrmann's Walking Distance, is a must-have for fans of this great film music composer.

Hermann fans, rejoice! This is a truly spectacular CD -- the sound quality is amazing, the performance is terrific, and listening to it the first time was as if I'd only ever heard it before with cotton in my ears. And, as the other reviewer stated, the booklet is very detailed and full of interesting information. Yes, it's expensive, but worth it.

William Stromberg and the Moscow Symphony Orchestra offer spellbinding performances on this CD. Both the complete score for Fahrenheit 451 and the score for The Twilight Zone's Walking Distance are rendered here as symphonic poems. Often with albums of movie soundtracks and rerecorded film scores, I want to rearrange or omit some bands, but in this re-recording, two of Bernard Herrmann's most beautiful film scores are presented as unified listening experiences--and, indeed, work well together, as both are orchestrated predominantly for strings. The extensive liner notes for this CD includes Stromberg's report that the Moscow Symphony Orchestra players were quite familiar with Ray Bradbury's novel, but not with Francois Truffaut's film of Fahrenheit 451, and "seemed to really enjoy Bernard Herrmann's take on this popular novel." Their enjoyment seems palpable in this recording--one of the best ever of Bernard Herrmann's music.