For this first volume of the three dedicated to Bernard Herrmann's music for 20th Century Fox, Varése has been especially careful: Tender is the Night, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit and A Hatful of Rain are the three chosen soundtracks. The first one corresponds to his last work for Fox, a tedious adaptation of Scott Fitzgerald's novel on which producer David O. Selznick, showing off his obstinate authority, made and unmade without considerations: we refer, especially, to the main titles, where Selznick had a very different idea from that of Herrmann as for what should be heard; the final result was a wonderful although inappropriate song whose lyrics and music were by the Oscar-winner Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster. The rest of the score doesn't disappoint at all, and Herrmann makes boast of his accustomed wisdom; the unavoidable comparisons appear, and appear some themes indebted of another works of his author. In definitive, a true pleasure solely eclipsed by what is in our opinion the jewel of the CD, The Man In the Gray Flannel Suit, with the unmistakable strings used so many times bu his author, and where we could highlight themes as Maria or Farewell, but we would be unfair with the rest.A Hatful of Rain is the third and last piece of the CD, presented as a Suite, and from the first chords we realize that it is not a precisely pleasant movie, where the adiction to drugs is the main theme of this film directed by Fred Zinnemann; the prevalence of the wind instruments puts us on warning and announces us a not very relaxed period. In summary, three Bernard Herrmann soundtracks never before published would be enough guarantee for the acquisition of this CD, but if we also meet with such a content the acquisition should be perfunctory. R.M.
