Citizen Kane: The Classic Film Scores of Bernard Herrmann


RCA Records 1991 CD (0078635070729)
RCA Records 2011 CD (0886978126429)
RCA Red Seal 2011 CD (0886978126429)
Sony Music 2011 CD (0886978126429)
 

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# Track   Duration
On Dangerous Ground
1.The Death Hunt2:27
 
Citizen Kane
2.Prelude, Xanadu, Snow Picture3:18
3.Theme and Variations (Breakfast Montage)3:28
 
Citizen Kane (soprano)
4.Aria from Salammbo4:17
 
Citizen Kane
5.Rosebud and Finale2:41
 
Beneath the 12-Mile Reef
6.The Sea, The Lagoon4:41
7.Descending1:51
8.The Octopus, Homecoming3:38
 
Hangover Square (piano)
9.Concerto Macabre for Piano and Orchestra12:02
 
White Witch Doctor
10.Talking Drums, Prelude, The Riverboat, Petticoat Dance, The Safari3:58
11.Tarantula, The Lion1:27
12.Nocturne3:47
13.Abduction of the Bakuda Boy, The Skulls1:56
14.Looni Bound by Ropes, Departure2:27
 51:58
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Citizen Kane: The Classic Film Scores of Bernard Herrmann - 10/10 - Review of Tom Daish, submitted at
On first look, this compilation doesn't appear to be the classic Bernard Herrmann at all. In fact, White Witch Doctor has to be the most obscure sounding title for a film that I've ever heard. Hangover Square, On Dangerous Ground and Beneath the 12-Mile Reef are hardly renowned cinematic gems. Admittedly, Citizen Kane is one of the most famous movies of all time; even so, there is not even a whisper of Hitchcock anywhere. Still, this being a Bernard Herrmann compilation, all the music is uniformly excellent and much of it currently unreleased and/or unrecorded. Until Silva's recent recording, On Dangerous Ground hadn't had any kind of recording other than the track on here. This is possibly one of the greatest tragedies ever since The Death Hunt is possibly the most dynamic and exciting piece of music I've ever heard, especially with the gripping performance and crisp sound that Gerhardt, producer George Korngold (son of Erich Wolfgang) and engineer K E Wilkonson produce. Even though this recording was made in 1974, I'd never have believed that it had survived so well, especially when compared to how badly some film scores of that age have decayed or how much restoration has been required to get this kind of clear sound. It is truly an incredible audio experience, not to mention that The Death Hunt is brilliant composed with brutal horn, brass and percussion motifs weaving in and out of descending string figures. I must confess that this is somewhat better than the Silva Screen performances, but it is an incredibly difficult composition to perform and so any halfway decent performance is admirable.

Citizen Kane is probably the most famous non-Hitchcock film that Herrmann ever scored. This suite is refreshingly different from Herrmann's usual Welles Raises Kane suite which he recorded several times. The Prelude is a much more mysterious and sombre piece than the bouncy overture and features low grumbling woodwind as the camera pans through the gloomy Xanadu. Even the Theme and Variations is much more subdued and sedate than the joyful concert arrangement. The Aria from Salammbo is done in the glorious tradition of late romantic opera and is exquisitely sung by Kiri Te Kanawa, amazingly this was her first ever album performance and listening to her, it is not hard to work out why she has become as famous as she now is. The Aria was originally intended to be sung by Mrs Kane in the film and written so she was unable to sing it easily, thus causing her some embaressment, fortunately, this is not the case here and it sounds splendid. The Finale is much more of the sombre nature of the opening Prelude. I would suggest that this more accuratelt reflects the general mood of the score than Herrmann's usual rather light and optimistic suite.

Beneath the 12-Mile Reef has set a subtle precedent for film scoring in the depiction of the sea using rushing harps figures, indeed John Williams used this very technique for several of his cues in the two Jaws films he scored. This is quite melancholy, as with much of Herrmann, but not without some beauty. The Homecoming, is, however much more upbeat, but the rest is no less appealing. The evocation of the sea is indeed wonderful and it is no wonder that this caught on in a big way. The suite from Hangover Square is a very brooding and turbulant mini piano concerto that is derived from the main material from the score, much in the way that Rozsa extracted sections from Spellbound for his Concerto for Orchestra based on the original score. It is more of a mini concerto of several short movements which each encapsulate the differing moods of the central character. These are carefully detailed by the late Christopher Palmer in this incredibly detailed liner notes, some of the most fascinating I have read on a release such as this.

The final suite from White Witch Doctor is, as Palmer says 'a tone poem for the jungle' in its use of various percussion instruments to give some feeling of time and place, most notably in the opening section of the first cue which is taken from several shorter cues. I was more than a little surprised to note how much John Barry's equally obscure score to Mister Moses, even down to the more upbeat jungle sections. The music is not something I would have expected from either composer given their usual quite distinct styles, but it is even more surprising that this other similarity is present. One of the most haunting segments of this suite is the Nocturne, which even my sister commented was extremely lovely, yet another elegaic Herrmann cue in the same league as the finale from Fahrenheit 451 or the doomed romance music from The Ghost and Mrs Muir, wonderful stuff.

It took me a long time to acquire this disc, probably becuase many of the titles seemed so obscure that I had assumed, wrongly, that the music would be equally obscure. Of course this is not the case and it shows beyond a shadow of doubt that you cannot judge the merits of a score by the title or merits of the film. White Witch Doctor might now be forgotten by everyone, but I hope that Herrmann's music doesn't die with it. I only hope that in the fullness of time all of these scores will either get top rate re-recordings or the original masters are preserved digitally forever. As I mentioned, the liner notes are exemplary and are a model by which the quality of such information should be judged. It is a shame that Gerhardt didn't get around to recording any more Herrmann as he would appear to have a brilliant grasp on the music and would no doubt have produced some other fine albums, but we must at least commend him for putting out this recording originally, in a time when Herrmann was almost a forgotton film music figure; that it is still such a great album today is testament to the excellent work of all concerned.
Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953)

Citizen Kane (1941)

Hangover Square (1945)

On Dangerous Ground (1952)

White Witch Doctor (1953)
Trailer:





Other releases of Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953):

Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (2001)
Citizen Kane (1974)
Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (2004)
Classic Film Scores Of Bernard Herrmann, The (1974)
Citizen Kane (1974)
Citizen Kane (1981)

Other releases of Citizen Kane (1941):

Citizen Kane (1999)
Citizen Kane - The Essential Bernard Herrmann Collection (1999)
Citizen Kane (2012)
Film Music of Bernard Herrmann, The (2010)
Citizen Kane (1975)
Citizen Kane (1974)
Citizen Kane (1991)
Citizen Kane (1998)
Citizen Kane / The Magnificent Ambersons (2000)
Citizen Kane (2010)
Citizen Kane (1978)
Classic Film Scores Of Bernard Herrmann, The (1974)
Orson Welles and the Music (2015)
Citizen Kane (1974)
Citizen Kane (1981)

Other releases of Hangover Square (1945):

Film Music of Bernard Herrmann, The (2010)
Citizen Kane (1974)
Hangover Square / 5 Fingers (2015)
Film Music Of Bernard Herrmann, The (1974)
Classic Film Scores Of Bernard Herrmann, The (1974)
Citizen Kane (1974)
Citizen Kane (1981)

Other releases of On Dangerous Ground (1952):

On Dangerous Ground (2003)
Citizen Kane - The Essential Bernard Herrmann Collection (1999)

Other releases of White Witch Doctor (1953):

Citizen Kane (1974)
White Witch Doctor (2015)
Classic Film Scores Of Bernard Herrmann, The (1974)
Citizen Kane (1974)
Citizen Kane (1981)


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