Bernard Herrmann at Fox: Volume 1: (Bernard
Herrmann) In one of the most complete releases of Bernard Herrmann's
music in the digital era, veteran producer Nick Redman assembled three
original Herrmann scores from his years at 20th Century Fox and rolled
them into a strong compilation appropriately titled "Bernard Herrmann at
Fox." The Varèse Sarabande label would release two such CDs back
to back in the autumn of 1999, followed by a third volume released in
early 2000. Herrmann, blessed with the admiration of music director
Alfred Newman at Fox, composed more than a third of his scores for that
studio (by the mid-sixties, of course, circumstances led Herrmann to
become frustrated with Hollywood all together, so he ceased his film
scoring in Los Angeles and moved to London to tackle concert-writing and
other miscellaneous endeavors). The three scores represented on this
first volume of "Herrmann at Fox" come from his later days at the
studio, well after his named had been established (though not accepted
by all) in Hollywood. Unlike many previous albums of Herrmann's work
released by Varèse Sarabande, including
Vertigo,
The
7th Voyage of Sinbad,
Psycho, and
The Trouble with
Harry, among others, all of the music on these "Herrmann at Fox"
albums is the original recording from each respective film. None of the
three scores on the album exhibits the flashy, unconventional, and
powerful Herrmann music that many fans are accustomed to. The financial
disaster
Tender is the Night occupies the largest time on the
album and features a softer and more melancholy side of the composer's
work. The scoring of the film was extremely troublesome for Herrmann,
who was originally removed from the project because he refused to
interpolate the original song by veterans Sammy Fain and Paul Francis
into his underscore. That song would go on to anchor the film's album
(absent of any Herrmann material) and be nominated for an Academy Award.
Herrmann reportedly begged to be reinstated, though it would turn out to
be Herrmann's last collaboration at Fox due to incoming music director
Lionel Newman's distaste for the composer's works.
The music for
Tender is the Night, while
certainly not Herrmann's best, has one remarkable feature. The doomed
love story called for a whimsical string theme that builds in
anticipation and eventually bursts from the pressure, much like the
classic love theme from
Vertigo, and at this emotional release,
Herrmann succeeds well. The mass of the score for
The Man in the Gray
Flannel Suit contains much of the same type of underscore, though
there wasn't much music used in the film in the first place. The prelude
bursts onto the scene with an impressive array of timpani and strings,
and the score concludes with the same amount of bravado. It is this
score's theme that sold this compilation for many film music collectors.
The sixteen minute suite from
A Hatful of Rain, mixed and
reassembled by Intrada Records' Doug Fake for this release, is a
remarkably troubled piece, with blaring brass and a strong, pronounced
tempo. It's a very fitting score for the subject of addiction, though
not readily enjoyable on album. Redman and Fake, for some reason,
decided to allow all sixteen minutes from
A Hatful of Rain to
exist in one track, which is inconsistent with the rest of the album's
format. Overall, the combination of scores together makes for a very
worthy compilation of original works. Though all three scores are
presented in archival sound, the quality of sound improves with each
successive score on the album. The song for
Tender is the Night
(both at the beginning and end) features better sound clarity than the
Herrmann score, and the difference is especially noticeable in the
transition to the first Herrmann cue from the score. Some of that
difference may be due to the dynamic presence of vocals in the song. On
the whole, though, this flaw should not stop Herrmann fanatics from
investing in this product. While the highlight for many will be the
opening and closing cues from
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit,
the entire compilation is an excellent treatment of Herrmann's music. It
may not appeal to casual listeners who generally restrain their interest
in Herrmann's work to his explosive collaboration with Alfred Hitchcock,
but it's a noteworthy album that exceeds the quality of the subsequent
two volumes from Varèse.
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The insert includes lengthy commentary about each score and the circumstances under
which they were composed.
