Bernard Herrmann: Psycho suite for string quartet

Bernard Herrmann was perhaps one of the greatest musical all-rounders of the 20th Century. Although he is best known for his scores to perhaps some of the most iconic films ever made (ʻVertigoʼ, ʻCitizen Kaneʼ, ʻPsychoʼ), he was also a talented composer for the concert hall, with an early career marked out by his skill as a conductor – praised by Stravinsky amongst others, who autographed Hermannʼs score for his Symphony in 3 Movements with “To the excellent musician and conductor, Bernard Herrmann. Cordially, I. Stravinsky.”

The Tippett Quartet capture the energy and musical finesse of Herrmannʼs works in this recording, accompanied for Souvernirs de Voyage by the clarinetist Julian Bliss and featuring a new arrangement of his score for ʻPsychoʼ.

Review

There's more to Bernard Hermann than Psycho, thrillingly as it's played here...

...most successfully arranged (by Richard Birchall) and thrillingly, chillingly delivered by a double-tracked Tippett Quartet. It is difficult to think of a more influential piece of illustrative music, nor one so blatantly ripped off by its many imitators.Souvenirs de voyage, featuring the suitably restrained clarinet of Julian Bliss, is effective too in its more pallid fashion. It is Echoes, the haunting and melancholy string quartet written when Herrmann's second marriage had unravelled, that proves most memorable, giving new life to turns of phrase and musical strategies familiar from the silver screen. The piece has been recorded before, as has Souvenirs de voyage – they were reunited for reissue on Unicorn (5/95) – but it is impossible to imagine more expert renditions than these.

 The players are always very tangibly present in a resonant venue which may or may not have produced some narrowing of dynamic range (the Psycho Suite sounds drier) and there are excellent notes by film historian Neil Sinyard. Recommended.

Gramophone, David Gutman – 6 January 2011