The Film Music of Bernard Herrmann - Hangover Square & Citizen Kane
List Price:
Our Price: $10.84
You Save: $8.15 (43%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $9.77 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more CD details
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
CD Details
Composer: Bernard HerrmannConductor: Rumon Gamba
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Soundtrack
CD Release Date: 2010-02-23
Music Label: CHANDOS CHACONNE
Soundtracks:
- [Part 1]
- [Part 2]
- [Part 3]
- Concerto macabre, for piano and orchestra (after Bernard Herrmann's con
- [Part 1]
- [Part 2]
- [Part 3]
- [Part 4]
- [Part 5]
- [Part 6]
- [Part 7]
Music reviews of The Film Music of Bernard Herrmann - Hangover Square & Citizen Kane
Music Review: Two Bernard Herrmann Film Scores Beautifully Prepared, Played and Recorded
Rating: 5 Stars
This CD presents two of Bernard Herrmann's classic film scores from early in his career. They have been arranged from the original manuscripts by Stephen Hogger and played by the BBC Philharmonic led by a conductor who has become a leading light in film score recordings, Rumon Gamba. Everything about this production is first-class. The booklet notes by Günther Kögebehn are exemplary and I have borrowed from them for this review.
'Hangover Square' (1944) came on the heels of a movie that had been a big hit, 'The Lodger', starring Laird Cregar. 'Hangover Square', although taken from an unrelated novel by Patrick Hamilton, was massively rewritten to imitate 'The Lodger' and to accommodate the early 1940s fad (following the unexpected success of the 'Warsaw Concerto' in the film 'Dangerous Moonlight') of featuring a piano concerto, in this case played by the lead character, George Harvey Bone. Bone was a composer/pianist who had a Jekyll/Hyde personality and who, when insane, is an arsonist. The climax of the movie has him playing the première of his concerto after having set fire to the concert hall. The final pages of the concerto are played in the inferno after everyone, including the orchestra, has gotten out safely. As a result this concerto is probably the only one ever written that ends with the piano playing alone! The music for the film is among the eeriest ever written for a movie. It certainly sets forth the weird character of George Harvey Bone.
'Citizen Kane', of course, has in many surveys been called the greatest movie ever made in America. It was the brainchild of the boy wonder, Orson Welles, and the music score was Bernard Herrmann's first for the movies. In New York he had been a part of Welles' team for The Mercury Theater of the Air (the group that broadcast the notorious dramatization of 'The War of the Worlds' that set off a panic because listeners thought it was an actual newscast) and he had come west with Welles when the director was to make his first film. Of course Welles used him to score 'Citizen Kane'. Of many notable things in the score, two stand out: the use of a variant of the 'Dies Irae' in its opening measures, Herrmann's way of foreshadowing the ultimate course of the film, and the music Herrmann wrote for Kane's soprano wife, Susan, in her failed effort to become an opera star. In the latter case Herrmann wrote that he had to write music for a singer who wasn't awful but who clearly didn't have what it took to be a great diva. He did this by using a lyric soprano singing music that was intentionally a bit too high and too heavy for her light voice, a device that works brilliantly.
These performances are spectacularly good. Martin Roscoe, the fine British pianist, is the soloist in the piano concerto from 'Hangover Square' and soprano Orla Boylan sings in the 'Citizen Kane' operatic music.
Strong recommendation.
Scott Morrison
More The Film Music of Bernard Herrmann - Hangover Square & Citizen Kane free music reviews:
1
1
Description of The Film Music of Bernard Herrmann - Hangover Square & Citizen Kane
All products are BRAND NEW and factory sealed. Fast shipping and 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed.Soundtracks CDs
Music Genres
Bestsellers in Soundtracks CDs
Tangerine Dream - Miracle MileRelease date: 1989-05-25; Music CD
Price in other shops:
Alpha & Omega / I Have Returned (Accomp. Cassette)by Kenneth Copeland
Music CD
Marvin Gaye - The Master - Earbooks (Spec)Release date: 2006-12-26; Music CD
Best price: $29.17
Price in other shops:
Die Ariola Star-Club - Die Ariola Star-ClubRelease date: 1999-07-15; Music CD
Best price: $107.62
Doctor Who: The Plays (BBC Audio)Audio CD; Book
Best price: $32.95
Instruments of the OrchestraPublished: 2002-10-01; Music CD
Best price: $26.59
Price in other shops:
War of the Worlds: Original Radio Broadcastby H. G. Wells
Action Music; Published: 2001-09; Audio Cassette; Book
Best price: $14.98
Old-Time Radio: Legends of ComedyRadio Spirits; Published: 2001-04; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $74.99
Classic Favorites (10-Hour Collections)by Various
Radio Spirits; Published: 2001-04-01; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $89.99
Classic Children's Tales Narrators - Volume 7, The Story of White Satin; Five Peas in a Pod, Rumpelstiltskin; The Little Magic PotRelease date: 1997-09-15; Music CD
Best price: $10.99
Similar CDs
Bernard Herrmann: The Twilight Zone (Television Series Score Re-recording)Release date: 1999-11-16; Music CD
Best price: $17.58
Price in other shops:
Citizen Kane: The Classic Film Scores of Bernard HerrmannTCM; Release date: 2011-03-01; Music CD
Best price: $7.04
Price in other shops:
Esa-Pekka Salonen - Herrmann - The Film ScoresRelease date: 2009-12-29; Music CD
Best price: $4.99
Price in other shops:
Fox Horror Classics Collection (The Lodger / Hangover Square / The Undying Monster)Fox; Release date: 2007-10-09; DVD
Best price: $14.20
Price in other shops:
Psycho: The Complete Original Motion Picture ScoreHERRMANN,BERNARD; Release date: 1997-07-29; Music CD
Best price: $11.46
Price in other shops:
Bernard Herrmann - Bernard Herrmann: Great Film MusicRelease date: 1996-05-14; Music CD
Best price: $12.99
Music For The Movies: Bernard HerrmannKultur; Release date: 2007-09-25; DVD
Best price: $14.22
Price in other shops:
Bernard Herrmann: The Essential Film Music CollectionRelease date: 2006-09-05; Music CD
Best price: $14.60
Price in other shops:
Day the Earth Stood Still (Score)Score; Release date: 2003-03-04; Music CD
Best price: $9.99
Price in other shops:
Bernard Herrmann: The Film ScoresRelease date: 2005-10-18; Music CD
Best price: $4.37
Price in other shops: