Bernard Herrmann (1911-75)

Edward Johnson writes… The 50th Anniversary of Bernard Herrmann’s death in 1975 was marked in this year’s Proms by several of his film scores. On the Last Night, his edition of Arthur Benjamin’s “Storm Clouds Cantata” was included. This came from Hitchcock’s 1934 film “The Man Who Knew Too Much” and was the setting in the Albert Hall for the assassination of a foreign dignitary in which he was to be shot at the same time as a cymbal clash. Hitchcock remade the movie in 1956 and Herrmann, his favoured composer at the time, resurrected the Benjamin score for the Albert Hall scene, lengthening it by repeating some passages and also tarting up the scoring. In the movie, we heard Doris Day scream at the cymbal clash moment, though that of course was not included in the Proms performance!

What was odd was the curious selection of a French mezzo to sing two phrases at the start which together made a total of 40 seconds of music. In these I fear that one could not make out what she was actually singing. To make matters worse, she was plonked at the front of the stage with nothing more to do during the remaining 6 minutes except survey the RAH auditorium in songless silence. Hardly an auspicious Proms debut!

Anyway, here the Cantata is, as played in the 1956 movie …

I should add that the ever-gushing Katie Derham has been rapidly faded out at the end!

EdJ