BARGAIN OF THE MONTH
Bernard HERRMANN (1911-1975)
Film Classics
CD 1
Journey to the Centre of the Earth (Mountain top and sunrise; Prelude; The
grotto; Salt slides; Atlantis; The giant chameleon and the fight; The shaft
and finale) (1959)
The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (Overture; The duel with the skeleton; Baghdad)
(1958)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (Outer Space; Radar; Gort; The Robot; Space
control; Terror; Farewell and finale) (1951)
Fahrenheit 451 (Prelude; Fire engine; The bedroom; Flowers of fire; The road
and finale) (1966)
The Three Worlds of Gulliver (Overture; Minuetto – Wapping; Hornpipe; Lilliputians
1 & 2; Victory 1 & 2; Escape; The king's march; Trees; The tightrope;
Lovers; The chess game; Pursuit; Finale) (1960)
CD 2
Citizen Kane (Overture; Variations; Ragtime; Finale) (1941)
Jane Eyre (1944)
The Devil and Daniel Webster (Sleigh-ride; Swing your partners) (1941)
The Snows of Kilimanjaro (Interlude; The memory waltz) (1952)
Mysterious Island (Prelude; The balloon; The giant crab; The giant bee; The
giant bird) (1961)
Jason and the Argonauts (Prelude; Talos; Talos's death; Triton) (1963)
National Philharmonic Orchestra/Bernard Herrmann (Mysterious Island and Jason)
London Philharmonic Orchestra/Bernard Herrmann (all except Mysterious Island
and Jason)
rec. Decca Studios, West Hampstead, London, UK, February 1970 (Citizen Kane,
Jane Eyre, The Devil and Daniel Webster, The Snows of Kilimanjaro), November
1973 (Journey to the Centre of the Earth, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, The
Day the Earth Stood Still, Fahrenheit 451); Kingsway Hall, London, UK, February
1975 (Gulliver’s Travels, Mysterious Island, Jason and the Argonauts). ADD
DECCA ELOQUENCE 480 3784 [72:04 + 68:11] 
Bernard Herrmann plays a role, central or supportive in all three Eloquence
2CD film sets issued in November 2010 (Cinema Spectacular (see review)
and Miklos Rozsa's Julius Caesar, Ben Hur and Quo Vadis
being the other two). It’s been a long wait for these recordings to emerge
although the Herrmann tracks appeared in limited circulation CDs from Decca
during the 1980s. That they surface now – and at bargain price – is cause
for celebration. While 2011 is the centenary of Herrmann’s birth these discs
would have been hotly welcomed at any time.
Brace yourself for a faithful immersion in the wilder excesses of the Decca
Phase 4 process. The balances are superhuman and the spatial effects richly
directional. Is it any wonder that Stokowski delighted in this Decca elite
series. This exuberant ‘sound signature’ will only be objected to by ascetics.
During the first half of the 1970s Decca (in the USA, London) Phase Four issued
a series of momentous film music LPs:-
PFS 4173 Music From The Great Movie Thrillers - Bernard Herrmann
PFS 4309 The Fantasy Film World of Bernard Herrmann - Bernard Herrmann (London
SP44207)
PFS 4315 Music from Great Shakespearian Films - Bernard Herrmann
PFS 4337 The Mysterious Film World of Bernard Herrmann - Bernard Herrmann
PFS 4363 Great British Film Scores - Bernard Herrmann
PFS 4365 Bernard Herrmann Conducts - Bernard Herrmann
PFS 4381 Obsession - Bernard Herrmann
From these have been quarried the contents of two of the three sets and the
Julius Caesar tracks on the Rozsa set.
The Herrmann material has been much admired in audiophile circles with at
least one low volume LP run by Mobile Fidelity (1995, MFSL 1-240), a reputedly
super quality CD UDCD 656 and in May 1996 a standard Decca CD reissue built
around PFS 4309 topped up with tracks from PFS4337.
The Herrmann music on that first Fantasy Film Scores LP for Journey to
the Centre of the Earth was part of the reason for my taking an interest
in film scores. Spectacular isn’t the half of it! Dynamic range is extreme
and the most beautiful effects abound – how about the twinkling of a seemingly
myriad harps in Mountain top and sunrise and Grotto. The Prelude
is gargantuan and trembles with awe. The Hammond organs which could have
been such a miscalculation are masterfully resolved into the sound-stage.
The terror of Salt slides is carried in the brass. Atlantis is
awed and mysterious. The giant chameleon is evoked through the ophicleide
and the creature’s final death throes in the lava are heart-rending. The
shaft and finale has the Jules Verne heroes rising up the volcanic throat
on a great slab of rock – the sense of up-rushed acceleration is palpable.
The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad has a rambunctious and seductive Overture
which makes way for the rattle, ratchet and xylophone assaults of The duel
with the skeleton. The last extract is Baghdad – which beguiles
us with a perfect picture of the sloe-eyed beauties of the great city. Textures
thin out for The Day the Earth Stood Still. Outer Space, Space
control and Radar make use of rapidly pulsed percussion and piano.
The pulse slows for the starlit glimmer of Farewell and finale. Fahrenheit
451 begins with a remorselessly driven string Prelude that at first
sounds as if it might be akin to the drive music for Psycho. The
road and finale movement is piercingly tender – with hints of Ravel’s
Pavane. Then comes a brutal gear-change for Gulliver's Travels,
the music for which is a fantasy of super-Handelianisms, a touch of Prokofiev’s
Kije (trs. 26, 28), a croaking Shostakovich-like blast with wooden
ratcheting and a gritty rhythmic itch. The sequence and the first disc end
with another bumptious Handelian blast in the Finale. The second disc
opens with three pieces from the whoopingly joyous confidence of Citizen
Kane’s newspaper days and taking in some sentimentality along the way.
The character of this smattering of the score is very different from the Gerhardt
Kane suite on RCA-BMG. Then comes a single long track of music from the film
Jane Eyre. It exults in super brilliant analogue. The Devil and
Daniel Webster pieces - Sleigh-ride and Swing your partners
- are further examples evocative of affluent nineteenth century Americana
– Turkey in the Straw but on steroids. The Interlude and Memory
Waltz from The Snows of Kilimanjaro are powerhouse poignant pieces
in the manner of the music from Marnie. We then make our way back to
the fantasy scores with The Mysterious Island and Jason and the
Argonauts with the extraordinarily pictorial music for The giant crab,
The giant bee and the Talos episodes seeming to reach out to
the listener – transforming ‘mere’ sound into image and back.
For more information on Bernard Herrmann visit the Bernard
Herrmann Society.
Do not miss these extraordinary and richly enjoyable Herrmann documents. They’re
well supported with a liner-note from Kenneth Chalmers.
Rob Barnett