Alto Records returns to international availability – for download and streaming – acclaimed recordings of concert works by Bernard Herrmann, music that is simultaneously sophisticated in structure and immediately appealing.
“Like [Erich Wolfgang] Korngold, [Bernard] Herrmann was a consummate movie composer: his only Symphony – inventive, soundly constructed, always eventful and excitingly scored – successfully taps a harmonically tangy, neo-Romantic vein reminiscent of Barber at his best. … ‘The Devil & Daniel Webster Suite’ was assembled shortly after the film’s score won its Oscar.… Herrmann treats several New England folk-tunes to his own special brand of orchestral wizardry. The score is both a gentle, sepia-tinted portrait of rustic Americana and a wickedly endearing account of Mr Scratch’s devilish interventions. … [T]he 1943 berceuse ‘For the Fallen’ is a brief, but poignant lament for the soldiers killed in action. … James Sedares and the NZSO are on top form throughout this valuable addition to Koch’s concert works by acclaimed film composers.”
-Gramophone
