Bernard Herrmann's Cantata "Moby Dick"

[Dundonnell]

This is coming from Chandos at the end of the month, coupled with the Sinfonietta for Strings. Looks interesting.

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Chandos/CHSA5095

Rather odd to find that the orchestra is the Danish National Radio Orchestra/Michael Schonwandt?

[Paul Barasi]

That's one Hitchcock movie I don't know!?

[eschiss1]

well, who says all his music was written for Hitchcock? There's chamber music, a symphony, and other works also, and an opera Wuthering Heights I believe?... and the composer recorded "Moby Dick" (available on CD from Unicorn-Kanchana back in 1993 with "For the fallen") so this isn't a premiere I think though it is welcome!

[X. Trapnel]

Does anyone know whether Chandos is doing a complete Herrmann series as they did with Rozsa?

[JimL]

The cantata has nothing to do with the movie.  Philip Sainton composed the score (at least for the 1956 version with Gregory Peck and Richard Basehart).

[Lionel Harrsion]

That's one Hitchcock movie I don't know!?

I could be wrong but I'm fairly certain Paul meant that to be a joke!

[JimL]

I'm fairly certain of it too.  My response was more directed at Eric, who seemed to be buying into it.  Although I thought he was aware of the provenance of the score for the Huston Moby Dick.

[eschiss1]

Actually, wasn't aware that Sainton wrote the music for Huston's Moby Dick- interesting. Don't know the story behind it, though.

[JimL]

Buried somewhere within this Forum is an entire thread on Sainton, the film score for Moby Dick, and a symphonic poem he fashioned out of it.  Don't know if I want to try searching for it, though.

[eschiss1]

s'ok, I will find it. thank you and apologies I expect I shall hab a ... ok, no jokes, no jokes... hrm. closest thing I can find at the moment is This Thread but...

[JimL]

Note that Tom said "again".  The original thread must be further back.  Maybe it was movie music or sea music.  My memory is good, but it ain't what it used to be...

[Dundonnell]

Listened for the first time tonight to the new Chandos release of 'Moby Dick' and the Sinfonietta for Strings.

'Moby Dick' is a powerful work with some beautiful passages. One can understand Barbirolli's enthusiasm when he premiered it in New York in 1940.
It does strike me as a remarkably operatic Cantata with vocal lines from soloists and chorus which if you didn't know you might assume came from a chamber opera. Indeed Herrmann had originally thought of an Opera on the subject of 'Moby Dick'. Benjamin Britten, who was two years younger than Herrmann, attended one of the first performances and may have derived some influence from it?

I like the story in the booklet notes that Herrmann dedicated the work to Charles Ives. Ives advised the young composer to remove the dedication on the grounds that: "When they see my name on it they'll throw bricks at you!". Herrmann kept the dedication.

The Sinfonietta for Strings-influenced by Schoenberg- with those jagged chords Herrmann used as inspiration for some of the music for "Psycho"-is also well worth hearing.