Herrmann, B: Jane Eyre

The Bernard Herrmann / Phase 4 connection was one of the most significant in the artistic and audio history of Decca. Collected here and are significant recordings of his film music he recorded for the company from films which remain classics of all time. Released to coincide with the centenary of Herrmann’s birth next year (2011), this 2CD set is a timely reminder of the devastatingly effective music Herrmann wrote – and conducted – for the classic Hitchcock films. It is worth noting the remarks of Bernard Herrmann himself: ‘I feel that music on the screen can seek out and intensify the inner thoughts of the characters. It can invest a scene with terror, grandeur, gaiety or misery. It can propel narrative swiftly forward, or slow it down. It often lifts mere dialogue into the realm of poetry. Finally, it is the communicating link between the screen and the audience, reaching out and enveloping all into one single experience.’

Bernard Herrmann’s score for Jane Eyre was completed in 1943. It was his fourth film score and, like The Magnificent Ambersons before it, saw collaboration with Orson Welles. Not only is Jane Eyre Hermann’s longest film score, it is one of his most sumptuous, romantic and eerily evocative. He features a marvellous array of sonic effects – high winds, celesta, and muted brass – all designed to deepen and colour the characterisation, and orchestrated with his customary brilliance. This recording of the score restores, for the first time, cuts made during the recording or editing of the original film.