Customer Reviews

Bernard Herrmann At Fox, Vol. 1 - Tender Is The Night / The Man In The Gray Flannel Suit / A Hatful Of Rain: Original Motion Picture Soundtracks

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

 

 

I remember how in the mid eighties - when I started collecting soundtracks by the great Bernard Herrmann - I would never have dreamed that someday such rare items in the composer's output would someday be preserved on disc. Bu now, thanks to the enterprising record producer Nick Redman, Bernard Herrmann afficionados are treated to the first volume of 20th Century Fox's Herrmann anthology. Volume 1 and 2 focus on Herrmann's richest period, namely the late fifties and early sixties. "Tender is the Night" is the main course on this album. This is a moody, melancholic effort. Sad elegies. Sometimes quite claustrophobic. Remembrances of a place and people long gone. Your typical Bernard Herrmann score. Actually, this is the kind of musical atmosphere I was hearing in my mind while reading F.Scott Fitzgerald's novel on which this movie is based. There are shades of Vertigo's quiter moments interspersed throughout. The "main title" was not written by Herrmann. Unfortunately, Fox music executive Lionel Newman asked Gus Khan and Sammy Fain to come up with a potential hit song. The result is schmaltzy and mundane: the movie bombed. Fortunately, it can be easily skipped in favor of Herrmann's much more ambitious musical scenario. "The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit" is also very good, featuring a gorgeous soaring main theme and some atmospheric passages. Volume 1 concludes with "A Hatful of Rain". It is comparatively quite stark and brooding. Here is the flip side of "Benny" Herrmann: relentless, obsessive scoring. Although these movies are now quite old, the sound is in very crisp stereo with good channel separation. Some hissy parts. But the sound si great. 3 nice scores, well preserved. Informative booklet notes. Volume 2 ("Garden of Evil") and 3 ("Anna and the King of Siam") are also highly recommended. An important addition to Bernard Herrmann's growing discography.

Another winner from Fox-Varese. These selections were taken from the orginal soundtrack recording sessions conducted by Herrmann himself. They sound wonderful and should be supported by classic soundtrack lovers.

Varese Sarabande presents a series of Bernard Herrmann's years at Fox with this first volume, featuring "Tender Is the Night", "Man In The Gray Flannel Suit" and "A Hatful Of Rain". Of the forty-nine original feature film scores, eighteen, more than one-third of the total were written for films made at 20th Century-Fox.

Now let's look at what we have on this first volume..."TENDER IS THE NIGHT", rich and expressive score with twenty tracks of "Pure Herrmann" compositions, featuring muted, unresolved pattern in the violins, first in the lowest register, repeating in an octave higher, then an octave even higher, strings build to a screeching crescendo, creating a very effective scene, which Herrmann nailed perfectly for the story-line.

Next we have "MAN IN THE GRAY FLANNEL SUIT, themes of personal integrity, the pressures of conformity, dodging the truth and playing the corporate game, all of this is captured by Herrmann's brilliant score.

Final score - "A HATFUL OF RAIN" (1957), deals with heroin, and Herrmann utilizes the orchestras string section to its fullest, composing some fierce and furious sequences, putting true-to-life addiction smack-dab in the publics eye, which until now was unspeakable...Herrmann constructs an edifice of mounting tension unreleting ostinato for winds, building and building to an ultimate climax, a theme that haunts the entire score, our composer at his best.

Herrmann was at his peak when working at Fox, an era long gone but not forgotten, as we now have Herrmann's classic scores on CD, thanks to Varese Sarabande!

Total Time: 74:25 on 26 Tracks...Varese Sarabande-066052...(1999)