A couple of nights ago I watched the 20th Century Fox Hangover Square that was a somewhat tragic tale of pianist. Herrmann wrote a concerto for this. It is a 12 minute piece that is really quite good. I have 3 recordings Roscoe (Chandos), Fowke (Naxos), Achncarro (RCA), which I will compare and let you know. Does anyone know of any other recordings?? It really is quite good. Herrmann did a bit of dabbling in classical. Of course he is probably best known for his work with Hitchcock and Orson Welles.
Thomas :)
For some, Herrmann is best known for his championing of Ives and for his own symphony, which has lots of musical ideas worth unpacking.
For me he's the hero who single-handedly kick-started the Raff revival by paying for the production of his famous Unicorn LP of the Lenore symphony in the 1970s. I find his own music generally too unmelodic, I'm afraid. Plenty of atmosphere and undoubtedly deuced clever, but I never leave humming.
We agree to disagree on Herrmann especially his film music which had some memorable themes, instantly bringing back the memory of the film. I found Devil and Daniel Webster Suite to also be quite melodic.
Thomas :)
Has anyone heard the Buechner recording on the now defunct Koch label he did with the New Zealand Symphony
Thomas :)
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I stopped at 5 recordings and think I included the majority of them