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Review of Bernard Herrmann at Fox: Volume 2 (Compilation)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... if you seek the majority of three original recordings by Bernard Herrmann in his earliest years composing for 20th Century Fox.

Avoid it... if you already own the three scores represented on prior album releases, some of which superior in original presentation or re-recorded sound quality.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Bernard Herrmann at Fox: Volume 2: (Bernard Herrmann) As the works of Bernard Herrmann continued to grow in popularity nearly a quarter of a century after his death, Varèse Sarabande and 20th Century Fox teamed up for series of three albums in 1999 and 2000 that paid tribute to the composer's various work for the studio. The first two volumes featured selections from multiple scores that Herrmann composed for films both early in his employment at Fox (on this album) and late (on the first volume). All of the releases in the "Bernard Herrmann at Fox" series provide the original recordings and are digitally mastered into crisp stereo form. The first volume was released about six weeks prior to the second one, and featured music from Tender is the Night, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, and A Hatful of Rain. The third, released the following year, would offer extended treatment to Anna and the King of Siam. As for this second installment, fans are presented with three equally popular scores from a one-year period in Herrmann's career. Between 1953 and 1954, Fox was in a battle to lure the public away from their television sets and back into the movie theatres, and they achieved this (partially) by using the massive CinemaScope widescreen shooting process. The result was movies with huge and spectacular imagery that required equally powerful scores. And Herrmann, with the blessing of Fox music director Alfred Newman, was the resident man for the job. Having left his more diverse composing career for CBS, Herrmann moved to Los Angeles and was for a while an exclusive Fox composer. While each of the scores on this album has its virtues, the time was not a particularly successful one for the films represented. Each was a financial failure and, with the exception of Prince of Players, critically thrashed.

The large majority of music on this album is from Garden of Evil, a Western with its fair share of rambunctious cues for chases and vistas. Herrmann's driving drum motif for the middle portion of the score is bracketed by large, ominous and, in the end, heroic themes. Prince of Players has a more theatrical feel, with the melancholy fanfares of Shakespearean tragedies that resemble, perhaps not surprisingly, later ventures by Patrick Doyle. Rounding out the album is King of the Khyber Rifles, a rousing score of a swashbuckling nature. One of Herrmann's better love themes and a tint of ethnic influence are countered by ambitious action music dominated by Herrmann's favorite combination of enhanced brass and flutes. The album itself, however, is somewhat of a curiosity. All three of the scores represented are certainly worthy for release. They are, however, available in some form or another in other places. Both Garden of Evil and Prince of Players had been released just prior (with new performances in digital sound) by the Marco Polo label, and these releases are commonly considered to be excellent and, by some accounts, far superior to the originals. Additionally, King of the Khyber Rifles was recorded with high style by the legendary Charles Gerhardt, and his version contains even more of the original score (including the "Storming the Mountain" cue that is missing from this album). There had also been a very decent bootleg of the original recording of King of the Khyber Rifles on the secondary market for quite some time. Then again, there will be those Herrmann fans who will demand a renewed availability of the original recordings, and this second volume of "Bernard Herrmann at Fox" accomplishes just that. Overall, however, because this album simply reprises material available in better forms elsewhere, the first volume in the series remains the far better recommendation.  **

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 71:25

Garden of Evil: 1. Main Title (1:36) 2. Siesta (2:03) 3. Me-Mue (2:24) 4. The Cliffs (2:03) 5. The Chasm (3:33) 6. Hooker (2:03) 7. The Mission (1:10) 8. The Circle (2:05) 9. The Night (2:38) 10. The Quarrel (1:05) 11. The Wooden Cross (1:14) 12. The Mine (1:40) 13. The Feather (1:47) 14. The Wild Party (1:09) 15. Fuller's Devotion (1:22) 16. Fuller's Plan (3:06) 17. Fuller's Death (1:49) 18. The Circle (2:52) 19. The Chase (2:38) 20. The Cards (1:10) 21. The Ridge (1:33) 22. The Return (1:29) 23. The Sharpshooter (1:02) 24. Finale (2:33)

Prince of Players: 25. Prelude (2:18) 26. The Closet (2:01) 27. Homecoming (1:11) 28. The Dressing Room (1:26) 29. The Dawn (2:01) 30. The Confession (1:10) 31. John Brown (2:04) King of the Khyber Rifles: 32. Main Title (1:53) 33. The Pass (1:37) 34. The Ruins (2:02) 35. The Storm (1:31) 36. The Dunes (2:01) 37. Nocturne (3:48)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The insert includes lengthy commentary about each score and the circumstances under which they were composed.

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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Bernard Herrmann at Fox: Volume 2 are Copyright © 1999, Varèse Sarabande and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 10/26/99 and last updated 10/21/07.