PostClassical: More than Music

“Beyond Psycho – The Musical Genius of Bernard Herrmann”

Everyone knows Bernard Herrmann as a supreme composer for film – but he was much more than that. PostClassical Ensemble’s documentary observes Herrmann “in the round.” Sampling our new PCE Naxos CD, it explores the classic 1944 radio drama Whitman, written by Norman Corwin with music by Herrmann. The other works here are Herrmann’s Clarinet Quintet and Psycho Narrative (not to be confused with the better-known, but inferior, Psycho Suite).

The film, with visual presentations by Peter Bogdanoff, features PCE conducted by Angel Gil-Ordóñez. Its producer, Joseph Horowitz, pronounces Herrmann “the most under-rated 20th century American composer.” The other participants are Dorothy Herrmann, Murray Horwitz on radio drama, clarinetist David Jones, Whitman scholar Karen Karbiener, critic Alex Ross, and baritone William Sharp.

Sharp (who plays Whitman in Whitman) says: “When I hear Whitman’s words illuminated by Herrmann’s music, I really find it quite overwhelming. It speaks to us today on so many levels – when you hear ‘The President and all the government are here for you, not the other way around.’ . . . It’s just incredibly beautiful. I think that for modern audiences and presenters, it could be a magically wonderful thing to hear, very different from what audiences expect.”

New Yorker music critic Alex Ross observes: “Bernard Herrmann was absolutely one of the most original 20th-century composers of any country. I’m very happy that this CD is expanding our sense of Herrmann’s achievement, bringing a little known score to light . . . What strikes me about this combination of Herrmann pieces is that the emotional range is huge. It’s a very great talent that’s on display here, one that we’re very far from appreciating and celebrating in full.”