Customer Reviews

Herrmann, Rozsa, Waxman: Music for Strings

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As most investigating this product will know, Koch is a boutique European CD producer. There are three threads that hold together this interesting and at times arresting album. First, all are works (two sinfonietta and one concerto) for strings. Second, all the strings are from the Berlin Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Isaiah Jackson. Third--and the album's selling point--is that all the compositions are orchestral works by composers best known for their scores during the golden age of motion pictures. All the qualities that one associates with these composers are on ample display here in their less frequently heard works: in brief, Rozsa's power, Waxman's lyricism, and Herrmann's eerie chromaticism. (His "Sinfonietta for String Orchestra" is a pilot run for much of his score for Hitchcock's "Psycho" [1960].) Though Herrmann, Rozsa, and Waxman yearned to be taken seriously as composers, they put bread on their tables with their film scores. Now that the latter are being taken seriously, as they should be, it's a joy to hear works their creators meant to be heard in concert halls. Highly recommended.

The first I heard of these recordings of Isaiah Jackson and Berliner Sym. Orch. was ten years ago in a sampler record. They had (among others) Franz Waxman's compostion of Synfinetta for Strings and Timpani-Andante. The recording was less than two minutes long. I was intriqued
by it serreal atmosphere produced by the strings and the constant thumping of the timpani similar to a strange march for the dead. I found the recording in whole but was shocked at the going price of 45.00!
When I saw Amazon selling it for less than 20.00, I had to get it. I look forward to my the end of my quest.
forward to the rest of the score and the others offered as well.