BERNARD HERRMANN: Hangover Square; Citizen Kane – Orla Boylan, soprano / Martin Roscoe, piano / BBC Philharmonic Orchestra / Rumon Gamba – Chandos Movies CHAN10577; [Distrib. by Naxos] 77:31 ****:
Bernard Herrmann (1911-1975) was a fine composer of music for both the cinema and the concert hall, and a fine conductor of his and others’ music, too. The two scores presented here on this very fine new recording from Chandos predate his well-documented association with Alfred Hitchcock.
“Hangover Square” is a dark film, with a dark score, and tells of a composer, George Harvey Bone, who is busy writing a piano concerto, and is based extremely loosely on Patrick Hamilton’s novel of the same name published in 1941. In something of Jekyll and Hyde plot, the main character, on hearing dissonances, unfortunately suffers blackouts and the situation declines fatefully thereafter. Bone was played by Laird Cregar (1913-1944) in his last film before dying at the early age of 31. The music on the disc opens with 17 minutes of incidental music, with fine, rich contributions from the ‘cellos and basses and lower winds in a performing edition by Stephen Hogger. This is followed by the “Denham Concerto” upon which the film hinges, an 11 minute version for concert performance arranged from Herrmann’s manuscripts and notes by Norma Shepherd and entitled “Concerto Macabre”. Martin Roscoe provides big bold sounds for this powerful work, the piano on its own for the last 28 bars as the tragedy unfolds.
Four years earlier, in 1940, Herrmann was engaged to write the music for what has become one of the finest films ever made, Orson Welles’s “Citizen Kane”. The score is richly varied in atmosphere, from the tragic and noble to the high-spirited. Again, the lower parts are richly expressive and beautifully executed by the BBC Philharmonic’s players, as is Herrmann’s inventive use of tuned percussion.
Herrmann’s imitation of French opera, “Salammbô”, a vehicle for Charles Foster Kane’s mistress then second wife, Susan Alexander is a masterstroke. Alexander, in the film, is supposed not to be up to the challenge of the part, but Orla Boylan sings Salammbô’s aria wonderfully, her vibrato adding to the tension of the performance. Rumon Gamba and the BBC PO give first-class performances and it’s clear from these results why this orchestra is held in such high regard in Britain.
Accompanying this release is the usual superb booklet common to this series, with an interesting essay with quotes from Herrmann about his thoughts behind the music, and with a generous supply of atmospheric stills posters from both pictures. Recorded last year in Manchester’s New Broadcasting House’s Studio 7, the sonics are excellent with deep perspective. The booklet cover doesn’t say that this is Volume 1, but let’s hope it is.
— Peter Joelson
