1911 is Herrmann centenary year. I hope that
this will provide the excuse - sadly such excuses are necessary
- for companies to start freshly recording his concert and cinema
music. Much needed are vivid new discs of the single symphony
and single opera. The latter,
Wuthering Heights (1943-51)
was broadcast last year (14 July 2010) in a fine concert version
by Orchestre National de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon conducted
by Alain Altinoglu with a classy cast from l’Opéra Berlioz-Le
Corum de Montpellier. You can still catch this event on the Radio
France website. Perhaps this could be issued on CD? It may be
that the
Minnesota
Opera run (April 2011) will be recorded. Then again there
is also Herrmann’s own 1960s recording of the opera briefly available
as Unicorn UKCD/2050-52, now long gone abnd commanding dizzy prices
on e-bay and amazon market-trader. Australian Eloquence have issued
Herrmann’s exultant Decca legacy on Bernard Herrmann
Film Classics
480 3784 [72:04 + 68:11] and
Cinema Spectacular 480
3787 [56:05 + 68:27]; neither are to be missed. Very soon his
Decca
Planets will controversial be reissued by Eloquence.
Echoes is a tender single movement string quartet. It is a sensitive mood piece with gentle melancholy that is touchingly woven into the predominant introspection - a most unshowy piece in
Lonely Waters mode. Herrmann’s famed Anglophilia radiates from this melodic music. Two years later Herrmann turned to the clarinet quintet for his
Souvenirs de Voyage. It is again a gentle nostalgia-soaked work – sensitive yet with its arteries never clogged with lachrymose heaviness. It shares much the same atmosphere as the more pastorally soliloquising sections of the Finzi Clarinet Concerto - all very understated yet poignant. The movements are marked either
Lento or
Andante. A mistily cautious happiness suffuses the third and final movement which also at times touches on the manner of a Strauss waltz and at others suggests a Neapolitan love-song. The grit in this collection is provided by the little ten minute suite carved out by Richard Birchall from the score for
Psycho. It’s all very skilfully done and like everything else here superbly played. Scudding anxiety, ascending tension, broodingly nurtured violence and terror are all faithfully articulated. While there are times when you miss the weighty impact of a full string orchestra the insight brought to this music by the Tippett Quartet pays off.
The Amici quartet made the first recording of
Echoes [21:18] in the 1960s and this was issued coupled with
Souvenirs de Voyage [29:01] on a Unicorn LP RHS332 circa 1972. The quintet was played by the Ariel Quartet with clarinettist Robert Hill. This also came out on a short-lived Unicorn CD (UKCD2069).
To complete a fine CD there’s a stonkingly good liner note by
Neil Sinyard.
Rob Barnett
Julian Bliss (clarinet) 
