Customer Reviews

Fahrenheit 451

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

 

 

This soundtrack joins the top of the top of Herrmann's masterpieces, music scores like "Vertigo" & "Marnie". Bernard Herrmann composed beautiful music to match with Truffaut's vision of "Fahrenheit 451". This soundtrack consists of various qualities; the dynamic & thrilling "Fire Engine" is followed by "The Bedroom" - one of the most beautiful and divine pieces I've ever heard. This duel of fire & fantasy ends in "The Road" - A new height for perfectness, with "one of those moments" that pierce the heart. Herrmann is simply outdoing the divine.

Why is Amazon placing film reviews here?

Herrmann's score for Truffaut's fine film is brilliant. Lyrical, mysterious, propulsive. Full of pathos, beauty, hope. It is, simply, a wonderful score. On this disc, we are presented with a good represenatation of the score. More would have been better. But what is here is very well conducted by McNeely. Half the disc is the 451 score. The other half, a selection from some less frequently heard Herrmann scores. Think of this disk as a Herrmann sampler. Enjoy!

Something is lost in this translation; one is advise to find the out-of-print 1974 London Phase 4 recording, THE MYSTERIOUS FILM WORLD OF B.H. as conducted by Maetsro, himself. It includes F451 in all it icy beauty as it was heard in the underrated film of 1966. It also includes 7TH VOYAGE and DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, and the fidelity is SUPERB.

But as rerecordings go, yes, this is a good one.

I wanted to see this film because of the music by Bernard Herrmann, because this sound track was being sold used and I didn't want to get it import. I didn't expect it to have other film scores on there, but no matter. Joel McNeely had all the tempoes right, as usual. I was also surprised to see that Joel was here in this state to conduct the scores to these films, and I wish I could've been there while he conducted. Thank you Joel for re-recording this beautiful music by Bernard Herrmann!