Biber Herrmann Love

The least popular of Alfred Hitchcock's late-'50s thrillers – perhaps because it is really a comedy – The Trouble with Harry also has the least well-known of the scores that Bernard Herrmann wrote for Hitchcock's movies. All of that is a shame, because – in keeping with the comedic nature of the movie – Herrmann assumed a lighthearted and upbeat, ironic mask that led to some of the most gorgeous and hauntingly beautiful music of his career; the composer himself clearly felt a fondness for it, as he revived it in 1968 as the basis for his "A Portrait of Hitch." The reed and horn passages are playful and ironic, and the signature string part, bridging the small-town innocence of the movie's setting, is one of the finest things that Herrmann conceived. It all makes for delightful listening, and is some of the best programmatic music to come out of Hollywood in the 1950s. The performance by Joel McNeely and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra is of excellent quality, capturing the finest nuances of the score, and the recording does it full justice.

From Biber’s famous ‘Guardian Angel’ Passacaglia to Guillemain’s ‘Amusements’ and sonatas and fantasias by Matteis (father and son), Pisendel and Vilsmayr, Isabelle Faust offers us a panorama of European music for unaccompanied violin from the second half of the Baroque era. Dreamy or virtuosic, these pieces bear witness to the diversity of inspirations from Italy, France, England and the German-speaking countries - and to their marvellous intermingling echoes.

Citizen Kane: The Classic Film Scores of Bernard Herrmann is probably the best of the entire series by conductor Charles Gerhardt and the National Philharmonic Orchestra. Every track is worthwhile and memorably played, especially Beneath the 12-Mile Reef and the suite from Citizen Kane, the latter highlighted by Kiri Te Kanawa's performance of the Strauss-like aria from Salammbo.

Heinrich von Herzogenberg (1843-1900) is the best of the Brahms disciples. Not only does he sound like Brahms, but he comes as close to writing at the quality of Brahms as any other second-tier composer I’ve heard. He was himself a close friend of Brahms, who was reticent about expressing praise for Herzogenberg’s works. I’ve read some speculation that Brahms was envious of Herzogenberg’s abilities, and after hearing his piano trios and these cello sonatas, I can believe it. R.H.R. Silvetrust, the editor of the Chamber Music Journal said this about Herzogenberg's cello sonatas: "[they] are every bit as good, if not better, than Brahms'. In my opinion, they play better, the balance is better, the piano does not drown out the cello and the writing for the cello is more cellistic and grateful to play.”

‘I feel that music on the screen can seek out and intensify the inner thoughts of the characters. It can invest a scene with terror, grandeur, gaiety or misery. It can propel narrative swiftly forward, or slow it down. It often lifts mere dialogue into the realm of poetry. Finally, it is the communicating link between the screen and the audience, reaching out and enveloping all into one single experience.’ (Bernard Herrmann)

In the early years of the twentieth century, composer Cyril Scott was briefly heralded as one of the brightest hopes for English music, but after the First World War, as public tastes shifted, his work fell out of favor with audiences, and it was only toward the end of the twentieth century that a critical reappraisal began. His music, which was admired by Debussy, Elgar, and Strauss, is being played with greater frequency and is finding new listeners. The pieces presented here, his two piano concertos and Early One Morning, a tone poem for piano and orchestra, were recorded in 1975 and 1977 by pianist John Ogdon with Bernard Herrmann conducting the London Philharmonic.