Search - Bernard Herrmann, London Philharmonic Orchestra, National Philharmonic Orchestra :: Herrmann: Welles Raises Kane, The Devil and Daniel Webster, Obsession

A trip through drama, fantasy, and obsession!

Newman | Olympia, WA United States | 08/20/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"When I first saw this album being sold in England, I still had not heard the music for Obsession yet, yet I asked for it anyway, because I loved the music to All That Money Can Buy, Citizen Kane, and The Magnificent Ambersons. Even though All That Money Can wasn't an actual re-recording of the original score, but a suite, it still was the same material, and it's the only recording you'll have of Bernard Herrmann conducting his first and only Oscar winning score. Welles Raises Kane is really just a compilation of music from Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons, with a few different arrangements. It was done wonderfully and had a hilarious sounding segment on the Saturday Night Band (track 3). Obsession is not just a movie with an obsessed Cliff Robertson, but also an obsessed Bernard Herrmann. I thought that I'd never see the film, because it wasn't being sold anymore, except new; no video store had it for rent either, so I bought it used, and I don't think I was anymore less obsessed than Herrmann and Robertson. The story was beautifully written by Brian de Palma and Paul Schrader (who was also doing Taxi Driver that year, Herrmann's last film), and I could not get over Herrmann's haunting, but beautiful Academy Award nominated score. After that, I kept fight to get this wonderful cd, and as much as I love the other suites, Obsession is the one I listen to most. Very much like Vertigo, but with a stronger feel to it, and Herrmann's second film with choral voices, the Thames Choir, which was conducted by Louis Halsey. A man who he's worked with before on his opera Wuthering Heights, when Herrmann used the Elizabethan Singers for the Christmas Scene, and which Louis Halsey conducted. Wonderfully performed by the London and National Philharmonic Orchestras, this is an album that should not be ignored, it should be part with any Herrmann collection. Also, it's the only way you'll have the Obsession soundtrack. A final note added, as much as I'm glad for Jerry Goldsmith to win his Oscar for The Omen, I kind of wish that Bernard could've won the Oscar that year for Obsession, since the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences really did ignore his music throughout his life, never-the-less, it was Jerry's turn too."