Bernard Herrmann made some significant recordings for Decca in the late-1960s/early-1970s. Many of these used the company’s then new audio technology, Phase 4, which brought the music into brilliant light. This collection brings together a selection of British Film Music as well as music by Herrmann himself for a series of Alfred Hitchcock films, including ‘Psycho’, ‘Marnie’ and ‘Vertigo’ (originally released under the title ‘Hitchcock Movie Thrillers’). It also includes a selection from Shostakovich’s dark score for Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’.
CD 1
WILLIAM WALTON: Richard III
CONSTANT LAMBERT: Anna Karenina: Suite
ARNOLD BAX: Oliver Twist: 2 Lyrical Pieces
GEORGE BENJAMIN: An Ideal Husband
WILIAM WALTON: Escape Me Never
RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: 49th Parallel (from The Invaders)
ARTHUR BLISS: Things to Come: Suite
CD 2
BERNARD HERRMANN
Psycho (A narrative for Orchestra)
Marnie
North by Northwest
Vertigo
A Portrait of ‘Hitch’ (from The Trouble with Harry)
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH: Hamlet (selection)
National Philharmonic Orchestra (CD1, CD2: Hamlet)
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Bernard Herrmann
Recording Producers: Tony d’Amato (Herrmann); Raymond Few (Shostakovich, Walton, Bax, Benjamin, Lambert, Vaughan Williams, Bliss)
Balance Engineers: Arthur Lilley (Herrmann, Shostakovich, Walton: Richard III); Arthur Bannister (Bax, Benjamin, Lambert, Vaughan Williams, Bliss, Walton: Escape Me Never)
Recording Location: Decca Studios, West Hampstead, London, UK, December 1968 (Herrmann), March 1974 (Shostakovich, Walton: Richard III); Kingsway Hall, London, UK, November 1975 (Bax, Benjamin, Lambert, Vaughan Williams, Bliss, Walton: Escape Me Never)
‘Spellbinding … a firm favourite … performed with breathtaking precision by the LPO, and both they and the music come across with a thrilling and vivid immediacy’ (Herrmann) Gramophone