Citizen Kane: The Essential Bernard Herrmann Film Music
Collection: (Compilation) Several record labels have attempted to
pay tribute to the great career of Bernard Herrmann, but few have
succeeded as well as Silva Screen. For the purpose of celebrating
anniversaries, among other reasons, the spring and summer of 1999 was a
time when a plethora of compilations of music from the careers of
Herrmann and Alfred Hitchcock was produced. Most of these compilations
offered similar, stale renditions of the usual
Psycho and
Vertigo variety. Silva Screen managed to avoid the pitfalls of
most of these entries by the mere depth of their albums. Very much like
the John Barry "Zulu" compilation released by Silva at about the same
time, this 2-CD "Citizen Kane" tribute to the career of Herrmann
features an excellent balance of classic themes and lesser known gems.
The most rewarding recordings on this album, though, are the inclusions
from those scores that casual fans haven't heard too often before, such
as
On Dangerous Ground,
The Naked and the Dead, and
Mysterious Island. While these scores won't strike any memories
for 99% of movie-goers, there exists no need to elaborate on Herrmann's
career, which stands on its own glorious, rule-breaking merits. His
unconventional rhythms and instrumentation make his music distinctly his
own, and few composers who have attempted to do the same in the years
since his death in 1975 have succeeded. On the "Citizen Kane" set, Silva
visits all the major players and ends with
Taxi Driver, the score
Herrmann never had the opportunity to hear in the finished
picture.
Near the start of the album, the selections from
The
Man Who Knew Too Much and
North by Northwest are the only
average representations on the entire set. The term "average" could be
misleading, for they are still good performances, though you will hear
them performed with more energy and vigor on other 1999 Hitchcock
compilations of re-recordings. The track from
Citizen Kane, which
is oddly the title of the album even though it's one of the shortest
selections, suffers from an identity problem in its placement. The
rather light music for
Citizen Kane came at a different (and much
earlier) time in his career, before his truly brilliant, dark and
enticing music began gracing theatres. The highlight of the album is the
ten minute suite from
On Dangerous Ground, which features some of
Herrmann's very best suspense music. It had been previously released at
the time on an inferior bootleg, but its crystal clear performance here
is a treat. The title music from
Seventh Voyage of Sinbad doesn't
have as much spark as the version presented by Varèse Sarabande
last year, but is entertaining nonetheless. The same applies to
Cape
Fear; the performance here is accomplished, but one step behind the
interpretation by Elmer Bernstein for the film's re-make of 1991. Part
of the issue with
Cape Fear is the faster pacing of the
performance, which diminishes the effectiveness of the suspense inherent
in the score's appropriately fluid structures. Aside from these slight
blemishes, the other tracks on the first CD are all superior in sound
and performance.
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The second CD begins with an excellent rendition of the
prelude from
The Naked and the Dead, followed by the composer's
crowning achievement in the world of science fiction.
The Day the
Earth Stood Still represents the typical feel of the corny,
early-1950's sci-fi flicks very well, even down to the cheesy theremine,
but the package is dripping with Herrmann's heavy dramatic flair.
Obsession and
Mysterious Island offer a look into the more
diverse side of Herrmann's talents, shedding some of his usual shades of
dissonance. The tracks from
Psycho and
Vertigo are exactly
what can be expected. Their most prominent suites have been overexposed
through the years, and the performances here rank average among all
their re-recordings of the era. Finishing the album is a classy tribute
to Herrmann's final score, the 1976
Taxi Driver, which takes a
jazzy urban theme and twists it into a dark and turbulent end. The
soloists in this cue (on saxophone and muted trumpet) do an outstanding
job of slurring their notes appropriately, conveying the seedy style of
the score well. Overall, the album contains the necessary themes from
Herrmann's career and, in these regards, functions as the best of
Silva's composer series so far. Great care was taken by the album's
arranger and producer to provide an intellectually sharp representation
of the composer's scores. Perhaps most importantly, although Silva has
released other Hitchcock and Herrmann music before, this album also
doesn't dwell solely on the Hitchcock material (a tired habit by many
others), offering a great diversity of genres from his four decades of
work. Even though there may be individual cues here that can be found
with greater intensity or accuracy on other compilations from roughly
the same time, this one is the best overall package for your money.
***** Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download
The insert contains extensive notes about each of the tracks, as well
as thorough credits.
